The Underworld
by Snowy Stoat
Summary: A family of weasels accidentally ends up in the dino-world. The weasel Buck is the only one who can help them get back to their own world. But not everyone seems to trust him completely, which may cause a lot of trouble...
1. Chapter 1 -Earthquake

**The Underworld**

**Chapter 1- earthquake.**

It was a bright, chilly morning when Diana left the den she lived in together with her family.

The sky was blue, and there was barely any wind. It promised to be a beautiful day.

Diana carefully sniffed the air before she left the den.

She had always been terrible scared that she would be attacked by sabers, wolfs, or worse yet: humans.

But there were no unfamiliar smells of sounds.

She ran to the stream on four legs, leaving a long trail of small paw prints behind her in the snow.

She was always very careful, which was not as strange as you might think. She was a weasel, and weasels have many enemies.

They were both hunter and prey, and since they were not that big, they were a very easy victim for predators like sabers.

She washed herself in the stream. She liked to have a clean fur. So, unlike some other weasels, she always washed herself every morning.

As the sun began to rise higher in the sky, other animals also woke up and went out to find food.

When Diana went back to the den, the rest of her family was awake too.

Her father was already out hunting for their breakfast.

"Good morning, dear," Diana's mother, Anna, said. "did you sleep well?"

"Good morning, mother," Diana said. "I slept fine, thank you."

Diana's older sister Liza, who had always been more the 'weirdo' of the family then her parents and sister, immediately began to tell about a strange dream she had.

Dorian came back with breakfast, and they ate.

Everything seemed like a completely normal day, just like yesterday, and the day before that and all the days before that again.

But when the four weasels went for a walk at noun, she seemed to shake a little.

They stood still for a minute, but when nothing happened, they shrugged and said that it must've been their imagination.

Only Diana didn't believe that. There was something wrong, she could feel it.

They walked past a big tree, and suddenly heard someone calling.

They all stopped and turned around to see who it was.

A young, handsome weasel stood behind them.

"Well, hello Elco." Anna said. "How are you?"

"Fine, thank you madam," Elco said.

He was a good friend of Diana's family. Diana had known him since she was a little weasel kit.

Elco was most certainly a very handsome weasel, with his blue-greyish eyes and light brown fur. But he wasn't very strong, even though he pretended to be strong.

Still, he had always been the one to protect Diana's family.

Elco smiled at Diana.

"Hi, Diana." He said.

Diana blushed. "Hi." She said.

The past few months, Elco had shown a special interest in Diana.

To be honest, Diana did not really know what to think of it. Elco was nice and handsome, but she wasn't sure if she felt anything special for him.

"Do you mind if I accompany you?" Elco asked Dorian.

"But of course you can join us, Elco," Dorian said.

"Thank you, sir." Elco said.

The earth shook again.

The weasels looked at each other.

"What was that?" Elco said.

"We felt it too before we left," Liza said. "maybe it's an earthquake."

"Don't be silly, Liza," Anna said. "I'm sure everything's fine. It was just thunder."

"Yeah, on a bright day like this, and from under our paws," Liza said sarcastically. "no, that's totally thunder."

"We should get away from here," Diana said. "this doesn't feel well."

"Now, don't worry, dear," Anna said. "it's fine. Completely fi..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the earth shook so hard that they all fell on the ground… But a few moments after that, there was no ground anymore, and they all fell in a deep, dark chasm that had appeared in the ground because of the earthquake.

They kept on falling for a long time.

Diana believed she fainted during the fall, because she never remembered the moment she landed on soft, green moss that broke her fall.


	2. Chapter 2 -Underworld

**The underworld.**

**Chapter 2. Underworld**

The first thing Diana noticed when she woke up, was how hot it was. She was used to the cold of the Ice Age, and not to this tropical heat.

She noticed low, soft growling sounds, and she smelled that some animal with a terrible breath was very close to her.

Annoyed, she opened her eyes.

For a moment she was petrified. She could not move, but only stare at the creature that was standing next to her.

It was a dinosaur. A huge dinosaur with red spikes on his back.

And he was looking straight at her.

Diana screamed.

Her family, who all had seen the same thing as Diana did, screamed too.

The dinosaur slowly leaned over to Diana. She covered her eyes. He was going to eat her, she was sure of that.

But the dinosaur took a huge bite out of the thick moss next to Diana.

For a moment, the weasels were silent.

"Do you think he only eats plants?" Liza whispered.

"I think so," Dorian whispered back. "But he can still crush us under his paws if he wants to. Let's not anger him."

"What's so funny?" Liza said, now loudly, to Elco.

Elco raised an eyebrow. "I'm not laughing." He said.

"Well, if it's not you, who is? I clearly hear someone laughing," Liza said.

They were all silent for a moment, and Liza was right. Someone was laughing, and that someone had to be very close to where they were lying.

"Who is there?" Elco said. "Show yourself."

The laughing stopped.

"Now, now, calm down, mate," a voice said in a very English accent. "I'm not going to attack you, if that was what you were thinking. It's just hilarious that you fellows are so afraid of Jasper here."

"Jasper?" Elco asked.

"Aye, that's what I call this dinosaur here." A weasel appeared from behind a tree. He seemed like a though guy. He wore an eye patch, he had a goatee and an underbite, and in his hand he had a big knife that seemed to be made from something ivory-like.

The weasel pointed at the dinosaur.

"I saved his life once," he said. "a T-rex bit off his tail so he couldn't defend himself, and that big beasty was about to eat both me and Jasper. So I grabbed a clamshell, and I…." the weasel stopped, and looked at the weasel family for a while. "Never mind," he said then. "I don't think you folks want to hear this story."

He turned to Jasper.

"Hey, mate, don't stand in the guest's aura like that!" he said.

Jasper made some growling sounds, took a few steps back and continued eating.

The strange weasel walked to the family, and helped them stand up.

"Don't blame Jasper for scaring you," he said. "He has brains that are the size of a walnut. He couldn't understand. He's just as stupid as any other Stegosaurus."

"Thank you for helping us, sir," Anna said.

"My pleasure, madam," the weasel said.

Elco snorted. He clearly did not trust this strange weasel, with his eye patch and his knife.

"Can you tell us where we are?" Dorian asked.

The strange weasel just chuckled. "Welcome to the paradise, oldie!" he said. "if I may give you a warning, don't go that way." He pointed at the jungle behind him.

And then he disappeared, in the exact direction he had pointed at.

"Did he just call be oldie?" Dorian said, maybe slightly offended.

"I don't trust that guy," Elco said. "He looked weird."

"What do we do now?" Liza asked.

Dorian thought for a moment.

"I think it's best if we find someone who can take us out of here." He said then.

"And where do we find such a person?" Eclo asked, raising one eyebrow again.

"We just met him," Dorian said. "I bet that strange hermit knows a way out."

"But he told us not to go that way," Diana said.

"Well, I don't think we have a choice." Dorian said. "Let's go."

They walked into the jungle.

There wasn't anything dangerous to see. Only strange plants and trees.

Still, Diana felt like there was something not right. She felt anything but safe.

The strange sounds of the jungle scared her, as did the strange flowers.

Also, it scared her that she now knew that all the time they had been living above an entire world. A warm, tropical, dangerous world with dinosaurs. In her head, Diana had already started to call this the underworld. Because, after all, it was under the ground, and she didn't like it. There was too much danger, too many unknown things. And how could it be that they had never noticed this world? How was all of this possible? But there were no answers to those questions.

Liza walked to one of the flowers.

"Look at this," she said. "I could live in this flower, so big is it!"

Suddenly someone pushed her aside. Just in time, because the flower quickly closed like the jaws of a predator. Had Liza not been pushed aside, she could have been trapped inside.

The person who saved Liza was the strange hermit they met just a few minutes ago.

"I told you not to go this way," he said, and he sounded annoyed. "Those flowers will literally eat you alive. But you tourists never listen, do you?"

"We're not tourists," Elco said. "we came here by accident, because of an earthquake that caused a huge chasm to appear in the ground, and we fell in it."

The stranger snorted. "As if I haven't heard that one before," he said.

"It's the truth!" Liza said.

"If you say so, love. But you folks can't stay here." The stranger said.

"We don't know the way out." Dorian said.

"So?" the strange weasel said, folding his arms over his chest.

There was a short silence, and then Dorian sighed.

"Will you help us?" he said.

The strange weasel shrugged. "sure, oldie," he said, and he grinned.

When he grinned his lower jaw moved a little more to one side, making his grin a little… crooked.

"Please don't call me 'oldie'." Dorian said. "My name is Dorian. This is my wife Anna, my daughters Liza and Diana, and this here is a friend of ours, Elco."

He held out his hand, but the strange weasel ignored it.

He put his knife on his shoulder, and turned around.

"Well, come on, then!" he said, and he started walking.

The other weasels looked at each other in confusion, then they followed the hermit.

Elco was not entirely wrong: this weasel was not at all like anyone they had ever met. The way he talked, the way he looked, everything about him seemed strange to the weasels, who had only seen 'normal' animals their entire life.

"I do not trust him." Elco said. "Not at all."

Diana found herself disagreeing with her friend. Even though he was strange, Diana had the feeling this weasel was someone they could trust.


	3. Chapter 3 -Buck the Weasel

**The underworld.**

**Chapter 3. Buck the Weasel**

**...**

"Not so fast!" Elco called out.

The hermit looked over his shoulder. "Not so slow!" he said back, with a grin.

They had been walking through the jungle for hours now. The weasels family was beginning to get tired. Their guide, however, seemed to be completely tireless. He just kept walking and walking, without having to stop and rest.

The other weasels weren't used to traveling long. So they all fell behind more and more, while the strange weasel just walked there like nothing happened. Though, sometimes it seemed like he was talking to himself.

"Can we please take a break," Dorian panted. "I can't feel my legs."

Their guide looked at them for a moment.

"Fine," he said then.

At the same moment, all the other weasels dropped on the ground, panting like they had just been chased by a saber.

The hermit looked at them in a slight amusement. Then he calmly sat down, picked up a rock and started sharping his knife.

After a while, the other weasels sat upright.

"Excuse me," Anna said to the hermit. "But, I don't believe you have told us your name."

Their guide smiled. "Of course," he said. "I almost forgot."

He stood up. "If I may introduce myself," he said. "The name's Buck. Short for 'Buckminster', long for 'Buh'."

"Pleasure to meet you, mr. Buckminster." Diana said shyliy.

"Pleasure's all mine, love," Buck said politely.

Diana blushed.

"What kind of parents call their son 'Buckminster'," Elco said. "that's not even a name."

"Correction, mate: it is a name," Buck said. "To be more exactly: it's _my_ name. And just a warning, lad: you'll regret it if you keep insulting me like that for no reason."

"Really," Elco said unimpressed. "so what you're gonna do, then?"

Buck placed the point of his knife against Elco's throat.

"I will use this," he threatened.

Elco nervously cleaned his throat. "Yes, well…" he said. "point taken…."

Buck placed his knife on his shoulder again. "Let's get moving, mammals," he said.

"What? But we've just stopped…" Liza said.

"You've had time to rest, love," Buck said. "now it's time to get moving. Or do you want to stay here and get eaten by either a plant, a dragonfly or a dinosaur. You can choose."

The weasel family instantly stood up.

Buck chuckled.

"That always works," he said. "now, get those feet moving. And no whining, we're in the underworld here. Be a little tough."

Diana noticed that Buck had just called this world 'the underworld', just like she did.

Buck looked over his shoulder while walking. "Well, are you going to move or…"

Suddenly, Anna called out: "look out for that…."

The next moment, Buck smacked right into a tree.

"…tree…" Anna finished he sentence.

Buck growled.

"Watch it, you!" he yelled at the tree.

Liza and Elco gave each other a disturbed look.

"Now, come on," Buck said to the other weasels. "if you don't move now, I'm leaving you guys to your fate. So hurry up."

"That was weird," Liza said to Elco and Diana, as they began walking. "did he actually talk to a tree?"

"I told you he could not be trusted," Eclo said.

"What does that have to do with talking to trees?" Diana said, and Liza laughed because of how strange that sentence sounded.

"I'm telling you, that weasel is insane," Elco said. "and would you trust an insane weasel?"

"You're overreacting, Elco." Liza said.

Elco turned to Diana.

"You believe me, right?" He said.

Diana was silent for a minute. Then she said: "I agree with Liza. I don't think mr. Buck is that bad."

"Does really no one listen to reason?" Elco said.

Buck was suddenly walking next to them.

"Of course everyone listens to reason," he said. "as long as it makes sense. Your reason doesn't make any sense, lad."

Liza and Diana giggled at the offended look on Elco's face.

"As if you make any more sense," he snapped at Buck.

The one-eyed weasel just smiled and shrugged, and walked to the front of the group again.

Elco frowned. He actually did not entirely understand why he didn't trust Buck. He just couldn't like the strange hermit. There was something weird about him, that Elco did not like at all.

But nobody seemed to listen to him, and so he decided not to talk for a while.

...

Above the ground, the sun was almost down, the light in the underworld turned red.

"Shouldn't we camp somewhere for the night?" Dorian asked.

"Don't forget that I'm in charge now, oldie," Buck reminded him. He looked around.

"We're close to my treehouse," he said then. "we'll go there."

He changed direction. Following him, the weasel family left the path they had walked on for most of the day, and they followed a new, smaller path through the jungle.

Not so much later, they arrived at a more open space in the jungle, where they saw about the biggest tree they had ever seen.

There was a big hole in the tree, an few feet above the ground.

Without any effort, Buck climbed through the hole. The weasel family wasn't as good at climbing and Buck had to help them to get in.

Once she was inside the tree, Diana looked around.

They were standing in a big room. In the middle of the room were a table made of a large, flat stone, and a small fireplace a few feet away from the table.

There were lots of shelves full of things Buck had collected, like feathers, scales, nails and bones of dinosaurs, dry flowers and plants, strange stones and pieces of wood.

There were also a lot of bowls made of stone or wood, and self-made weapons.

There were paintings on all the walls, and they seemed to be scenes of Buck's older adventures.

"Welcome to my home." Buck said with a big grin.

Diana looked around with admiration. "Did you make all those paintings yourself?" she asked.

"Aye," Buck said. "you like them?"

"They are wonderful," Diana said.

Elco quickly placed himself between Buck and Diana.

"Ahem…" he said. "say, Buck, what are all those weapons for?"

"What are they for?" Buck said. "Hunting dinosaurs, of course. What else should I use them for?"

"Excuse me?" Elco said.

Buck chuckled. "Of course, you tourists aren't used to things like that, but I fight dino's every day. It's fun." He said.

"It doesn't sound like fun to me at all," Elco said. "it sounds more like ridiculously dangerous."

"You are boring," Buck said.

Elco was about to say something angry back, but Dorian cut him off.

"Please, let's not fight," he said.

"He wouldn't have won anyway," Buck said.

"Don't be such a show-off," Elco said angrily.

"Well, excuse me," Buck said. "can't you take a little joke? Come on, don't be so serious."

Diana giggled, and Elco looked annoyed.

"I'm going to find something to eat," Buck said. "if you folks are clever, don't leave the tree. And if you do, please say hello from me to whatever's going to eat you."

And with a grin, he left the tree again with his knife on his shoulder.

"How can that guy be so incredibly optimistic about everything?" Elco said.

"I like him," Liza said. "he's funny. And he's completely right too, Elco. You shouldn't be so serious all the time, that's kinda boring."

Elco decided not to say anything back, since he didn't want to start a fight with Liza.


	4. Chapter 4 - Trouble already

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 4 – trouble already.**

…

Diana was out earlier than she had ever been.

It was so early, it was still mostly dark.

"Did we have to go out so early?" Dorian yawned.

Buck, who was completely awake, laughed.

"We can better be out of this jungle before the sun above the ground rises, because at that moment the forest will be full of Red Dragonflies. They only come out at that moment, but they're bloody dangerous. So, you can choose: get killed by a Red Dragonfly, or wake early."

"Do we have to wake up so early every day?" Liza asked. "if so, I'm not going to survive this journey."

Buck smiled. "Oh, don't worry, Love." He said. "when we're out of this part of the jungle, you can wake up at anytime you want."

"That's a relief." Liza said.

"Can you tell me where exactly you're taking us, Mr. Buck?" Anna said.

"I'm taking you to the only place where you can leave this world," Buck said. "There was a skeleton bridge once, but I destroyed it years ago. Last year, a new exit was made in a earth-quake. It's not very far."

"Luckily…." Elco said. He didn't like the idea of being stuck in this tropical underworld too long with this strange weasel, who was obviously insane.

"I think we'll be there in… I think a week or three…." Buck said.

"You said it wasn't far away!" Elco said.

"For you it is," Buck said. "I could make it in a few days if I wanted."

"How is that possible?" Elco asked.

Buck grinned. "I have my ways." He said.

Anna and Dorian gave each other a look. Then Dorian said: "Is there any way we can be there in a few days too?"

Buck thought for a while. Then he shook his head. "Nope," he said. "Nobody can make it that fast, unless if you're crazy, like me." He said the last words with a big grin.

"I told you," Elco whispered to Liza and Diana. "he's nuts."

"I heard that," Buck said, and he continued walking.

By the time the sun began to rise above the ground they had left the jungle, and they arrived at more open grounds.

Here was more grass, and less trees. There was a big lake, and everywhere dinosaurs were seen eating and drinking.

The weasel family was scared at first, but Buck told them not to worry. These dinosaurs were all herbivores. They wouldn't eat them.

One Brachiosaurus did almost stand on them, but Buck said the dinosaur couldn't help it.

"Can you help it when you accidentally step on an ant?" Buck said. "we are like those ants to these giants."

Elco did not agree, but Diana had to say that Buck had a point.

The only carnivores they saw that day (besides themselves, or course) were a group of small Compsognathusses, but Buck said that they didn't have to worry about them.

"I'm familiar with the compsies," he said. " They won't harm us."

"Why do you always say that, when it's never completely true?" Eclo said.

Buck gave him an angry look. "Are you calling me a liar?" he said.

Elco quickly shook his head. "No."

It appeared that Buck knew some of the dinosaurs personally. He had even given some of them a name.

They met Jasper again, who was still so terribly dull and stupid. They also met someone new: a mother-triceratops called Elinora. A few months ago Buck had saved her three little children from piranhas, and she was forever thankful for that.

The three children liked Buck very much too, but they were a little too rough while playing games.

Buck almost broke his spine when they were playing tag, because one of the kids jumped on his back.

After that, the one-eyed weasel decided it was time to get moving.

They crossed the valley, and once again they ended up in a jungle.

There weren't really dinosaurs in the jungle, but there were a lot of insects, lizards, snakes and small bird-like creatures.

They had walked a while through the jungle, when Elco suddenly gave out a cry.

The rest turned around.

"What is it?" Buck asked.

"I think I stepped in a thorn or something like that," Elco said. He looked at the ground he had just stepped on, and was a small, yellow beetle walking away.

"No," he corrected himself. "it was some kind of beetle."

"A small yellow one?" Buck asked. "wish a long snout?"

Elco nodded. "Yes."

Buck slowly shook his head.

"You're in trouble, mate," Buck said.

He said something else after that, but Elco didn't hear it because suddenly everything went black. The last thing he could realize, was that he was falling.


	5. Chapter 5 - admiration

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 5 – admiration.**

…

When Elco woke up, the first thing he noticed was the pain in his foot. After that, he noticed he was lying on a bed made of grass, and that his hurting foot was lying on a stone.

Around him were voices, many movements and the smell of fire. He couldn't see clearly enough to know exactly what was going on.

"Wha-what happened?" the young weasel was able to say.

"Oh, are you finally awake?" Buck's voice said. "well, I think you'd rather want go to sleep again. Do you want me to hit you out of consciousness? It's not a thread, mate, I just think it might help."

" What?!" Elco said, and he tried to sit upright, but someone held him back.

"Please, Elco, stay calm," Dorian's voice said. "Buck is going to have to… well, kind of cut your foot open."

Elco struggled to sit upright again, but Dorian made sure he couldn't move.

"Are you insane?!" Elco cried at Buck.

"That's not the point now," Buck said. "you're poisoned. I'm going to have to cut open that wound here, so that I can remove the poison. I know it's kind of a painful operation, but there's no other way to do it. Unless you want to die, of course."

"You are crazy!" Elco said. "it surely can't be that worse. It was only one tiny little beetle…."

"You don't believe me?" Buck said. "have a look at your foot then."

They helped Elco to sit upright. He narrowed his eyes and stared at his foot for a while. It took him some time before he could see clear enough, and when he did, he almost wished he was back in his half-blind state.

His right foot was swollen, and there was some kind of big, black bump under it.

"Now we'd better hurry," Buck said. "if we wait any longer, we may have to cut of your entire foot, I don't think you'd like that."

Elco fainted.

…

It was late in the afternoon when Elco woke up again. He noticed that he could see and think normally again. He still felt sick, and his foot was hurting even more than before.

He looked at his foot, and was that there were some leaves wrapped around it.

He was actually almost relieved that he fainted, because he didn't want to know how the whole operation had been.

"I hope you will now finally trust Mr. Buck," a voice said.

Elco turned around, and saw Anna.

"I'm sorry to say so, Elco," Anna said. "but Mr. Buck did a lot of things to help us. You owe him, so please be a little more friendly to him. He deserves it. "

"What, for cutting my foot open?" Elco said. "it hurts even more than before."

"But at least you're not dead." Anna said. "that beetle gave you enough poison to die of. And you would have died if Mr. Buck didn't help you."

"Where's the rest?" Elco asked, because he didn't want to have a fight with Diana's mother.

"Outside." Anna said.

Elco now finally looked around and saw where he was: in a cave that was obviously another home of Buck. The walls here were also painted.

Outside, he heard the voices of Dorian, Liza and Diana.

"And Buck?" Elco asked.

"He's out hunting for our supper." Anna said. "You can thank him when he gets back."

And with that, she left the cave.

Elco wasn't even planning on thanking Buck. He did not feel grateful at all to the strange, one-eyed weasel.

And when Buck finally came back with something to eat, and they all sat together around the campfire, listening to Buck's stories while eating, Elco finally got an idea why he didn't like Buck.

It wasn't necessarily because of something Buck himself did. It was that admiring look in Diana's eyes whenever she looked at Buck.

She had never looked at Elco in admiration. And he did not like that idea at all…


	6. Chapter 6 - The roar

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 6 – The roar.**

…

In the desert in the eastern side of the Underworld it was a terribly hot day. It seemed like the cactuses were the only things that could survive here.

But that was not true. For a huge dinosaur was lying in the shadow of a big rock. He was very old, but not at all week. And his red eyes could still spot an ant at night. His big claws had a remarkable, blue-greyish color. The rest of his body was grey, even the large sail on his back.

Two other, obviously younger and also smaller Spinosaurs approached the old one.

"Boss," one of the two said. "we didn't catch anything to eat this morning. There's no prey anymore, they have all gone to the forests. What shall we do?"

The old Spinosaurus sighed. "There's nothing we can do, Greyclaw," he said. "We cannot go back to our river, for Whiteclaw will not allow any competition. And the rest of the Underworld isn't safe either, because the Dinohunter is everywhere. This is the only safe place we could go. And this is where we will have to stay."

"But we'll all starve to death," the other young dinosaur, who was a female, said.

"We will anyway," the old dinosaur said. "You saw what happened to Sharpclaw when he challenged Whiteclaw."

Greyclaw shuddered. "All that was left of him was his head," he said. "and a few bones…"

"Precisely," the old leader said. "and we all know that the Dinohunter is the only one who can defeat Whiteclaw, so imagine what he could do to us."

Greyclaw and the female dinosaur gave each other a look. They didn't even want to think of that. Neither of them had ever seen the Dinohunter, but their leader had. He said that the Dinohunter was a small creature, but capable of great things. He was an undefeatable warrior, no dinosaur really stood a chance against him.

"Maybe the rain will come soon," the old dinosaur said. "that's our only hope. Then some of the prey might come back to the desert. I will talk to the wingclaw-leader. He might know if the rain season is coming very soon."

With those words, the old dinosaur stood up and walked away.

…

It was a very hot day. Even in the shadows Diana had the feeling she was melting.

It was cooler in the cave, but to be honest, Diana didn't really feel like being around Elco the whole time. He was either very grumpy, or he was whining about his hurting foot, and about how Buck was trying to kill him the whole time.

Buck only laughed at him.

Diana had never met anyone like Buck before. He always seemed so careless and happy, though it couldn't be denied that he was also slightly insane. The whole family knew about this, ever since they had seen him talk to a rock as if it was a person.

Diana didn't mind if Buck was crazy or not. She felt safe whenever he was around. To be honest, she liked him a lot better than Elco.

Eclo was a handsome weasel, there was no denying that, but Buck was strong, brave, funny and adventurous, something that Elco wasn't. Not at all.

"Why don't you come in, dear?" Anna asked Diana. "it's much cooler inside than it is outside."

"No, thank you," Diana said. "To be very honest, I'd like to swim. Is that possible?"

Buck, who had been winging on a vine upside-down the whole time, jumped down.

"Sweetheart, there's no dinoworld without water," he said. "I know a good place where you can swim, it's not far from here. Come on, I'll show you."

Diana looked at her parents. "Can I?" she asked.

"If you will keep an eye on her, Buck?" Dorian said.

"That's what I'm here for, old boy," Buck said with a grin.

"You aren't really going with him, are you?" Elco said.

But Diana didn't answer, because she was already following Buck through the jungle and didn't pay attention to anything except for Buck.

For a while none of them said a word. Diana wanted to say something, but she just didn't know where to start. There were many things she wanted to ask Buck, many things that she would like to tell him. It all confused her.

"Are you still alive back there?" Buck asked.

"Oh, yes!" Diana said, and then she blushed because she noticed how ridiculous her voice sounded.

Buck stopped and looked over his shoulder with a frown.

"Are you sure you don't want to sit in the shadow for a while?" he said. "because I believe the heat isn't doing you very much good. You sounded more as if you were reacting to a proposal than just a normal question."

Diana blushed even more.

She had been so relieved that Buck spoke to her, that she forgot to hide that in her voice.

"I'm fine," she said. "really."

Buck gave her a weird look, and continued walking. He didn't speak anymore, to Diana's disappointment, until they arrived at a small lake in an open space in the jungle.

"Here it is," the one-eyed weasel said.

"It's beautiful," Diana said, admiring the yellow-colored rocks and the blue dragonflies that were flying over the water. "is it safe to swim here?"

"Sure it is, love," Buck said. "I'd just advice you not to stand in the shadow-places in the water. Leeches, you know."

"Are they dangerous?" Diana asked.

"They will drink all your blood in a few seconds," Buck said, shrugging. "but don't worry about that. If you stay out of the shadows, they won't harm you. They fear the light."

Diana still hesitated to step into the water.

"I don't know…" she said. "maybe it's not such a good idea after all…"

But at that moment Buck gave Diana a push, and she fell into the water.

At first she was angry and offended, for she was completely wet and Buck was laughing at her too, but she soon got over that and tried to take revenge by trying to pull Buck into the water too.

They played like that for a while, until they were both soaking wet. Then they climbed out of the lake again, and Buck shook the water out of his fur like a dog does.

They sat down in the grass and let the sun dry their fur.

Diana had never felt so happy and free before. For the first time of her life, she had the feeling she had nothing to fear.

And at that moment, there was a distant roar of a dinosaur.

Buck sat upright and moved his ears to hear it better. Diana realized he had suddenly become tense. His eye moved, his ears were shaking a little, and he had a strange, nervous twitch in his face.

"What is it?" Diana asked.

Buck didn't answer right away. There was another roar, and the one-eyed weasel listened very carefully.

"He's awake," he said then, and he sounded very serious. "We have to go."

He stood up, grabbed Diana's arm and took her with him back into the jungle.

"What do you mean?" Diana said, as she was being dragged along. "Who is awake?"

"I'll tell you when we arrive at the cave." Buck said. "you and your family must leave this world as soon as you can. You are in great danger."

And the seriousness in his voice told Diana, that this was no joke.


	7. Chapter 7 - leaving again

**The underworld.**

**Chapter 7 – leaving again.**

…

The roar of the dinosaur echoed through the entire Underworld. Dinosaurs stopped with whatever they were doing and listened.

The Pterosaurs all landed on the rocks to listen to it. A huge Tyrannosaurus Rex let her prey go for a moment and sniffed the air. Brachiosaurs stopped grazing for a moment.

For a brief moment, the entire dino-world was listening.

In the desert in the east, the old Spinosaurus-leader listened, and then slowly shook his head.

"He's awake." He muttered to himself.

In the open valley where the weasel family and Buck had traveled through not so long ago, a compsognathus stopped chasing the red squirrel that he was trying to catch, and also listened to the roar. As soon a he recognized it, he began shaking in fear. He looked around. First he tried to hide in a bush, but then he seemed to realize something. He jumped out of the bush again, and ran off in the direction of the jungle.

…

"I don't understand," Anna said. "what's happening?"

"Buck said we're all in great danger." Diana said.

They were following Buck through the jungle again. Buck was walking very fast, muttering things to himself. The rest had difficulties with keeping up with him. Especially Elco, who could hardly walk. He had found a stick to use as a crutch, so that he could at least move, but he still was the slowest of them all.

Buck refused to slow down, and the weasel family could see that he was more annoyed than actually worried. He was talking to himself about 'stupid tourists', and saying words that better cannot be repeated here.

"Say, Buck…" Liza said carefully. "what exactly do you mean with 'he's awake'?"

Buck growled.

"listen, lass," he said. "the more we talk, the slower we will walk, and the sooner you folks will get eaten, so shut your mouth and just walk. I'll explain when we're in a safe place."

"but…" Liza said.

Buck stopped walking and looked at her. "Listen, the last tourist who came here got eaten," he said. "I'm not going to take that risk again. Rudy is getting stronger and more brutal, he's not such a wiener anymore."

And he continued walking.

"Rudy?" Elco said. "You're kidding, right?"

"Shut up!" Buck said.

Highly insulted, Elco shut his mouth. He didn't succeed in keeping it shut for long, however, because not much later he began talking to Liza and Diana.

"That weasel wants us to get killed, that's it," he said. "If it goes on like this, I won't be able to ever walk again."

"Now who's a wiener?" Liza said.

"I'm sure nothing can happen to us," Diana said dreamily. "Buck will protect us."

"Are you alright, Diana?" Elco said. "you sound strange."

Diana didn't answer. She just looked at Buck, who was using his knife to cut a path through the jungle, and she had a dreamy look in her huge brown eyes.

Liza laughed, but Elco couldn't see anything funny in this. It only made him hate Buck more. What exactly did that one-eyed lunatic have that he did not have? He wasn't smart and handsome, was he? Sure, he was strong, but weren't brains more important than muscles? Was it the eye patch that made him so better than Elco? That would make no sense.

If you think of it that way, Elco thought, there isn't anything special about this Buck. Maybe Diana just sounded so strange because she couldn't handle the temperature in the Underworld. It could make animals feel very easily confused, this heat.

He hoped that was the matter, and not that what he was fearing all along.

The longer they walked, the more Buck began to cool down, and late in the afternoon he was almost his old self again.

And just at the moment that Buck was telling a joke about two dinosaurs who invited each other to tea, something green and red fell from the sky and landed right before Buck's paws.

There was a silence, in which the weasel family slowly came closer.

The green and red thing was a small dinosaur. A compsognthaus, to be exact.

He was mostly green, with three red stripes on his back. He seemed quite young, about Elco's age perhaps. He had a very long tail, and, for a compsognathus, quite a chubby face. His eyes were close together in the front side of his face, and red like rubies.

Despite of the sharp teeth in his mouth, he didn't seem very dangerous. But of course, you couldn't be careful enough in the Underworld, so the weasel family took a step back again.

Buck suddenly offered his hand to the compsognathus, and helped him on his feet.

"Careful there, mate," the weasel said. "you'll break your neck someday, and that's something I can't cure."

The compsognathus brushed some dirt from his scales. And then he did something that was the least the weasel family would have expected him to do.

"Buck, did you hear it?" the compsognathus said in perfect Mammal-language. "Rudy woke up just a few hours ago!"


	8. Chapter 8 - Compso

**The Underworld**

**Chapter 8 – Compso.**

…

Liza had already started to run away. If dinosaurs could talk, what more were they capable of? Maybe it was better if she didn't know. He also fell from out of the sky… maybe that meant he could fly too.

"Was it something I said?" The compsognathus asked.

Buck grabbed Liza's arm.

"Relax, love," he said. "He's not going to eat you."

"I couldn't if I wanted to," the small dinosaur said. "you're all to big, and I'm only one compsognathus."

It was true that he wasn't very big, like most Compsognathusses. Standing on his long back legs, he was a little smaller than Diana, who was the smallest of all the weasels.

"Anyway, Buck," the compsognathus said. "did you hear it?"

"Of course I did," Buck said. He pointed at his ears. "best ears in all of the Underworld, mate. Remember?"

"You know this monster?" Elco said, who was still standing at a safe distance.

"Excuse me?" the small dinosaur said, insulted by the young weasel's words.

"You have nothing to fear, mate," Buck said with a grin. "Comps isn't even able to catch a fly without getting eaten himself. He's not going to harm you. He only eats eggs. And he's not even able to find those by himself!"

"Ah, you're just saying that on purpose, you old lunatic!" the compsognathus said, also grinning.

"Mate, that's like a compliment to me." Buck said.

Liza and Elco gave each other a weird look, as did Anna and Dorian. Diana just looked at the one-eyed weasel and the dinosaur with a smile. Somehow, she liked this dinosaur already. And if Buck trusted him, she would trust him too.

Buck patted the compsognathus on the back. "This here is Compso," he said. "he's a good friend of mine. I even taught him to speak out language."

"That explains a lot," Dorian said. "I didn't even know Dinosarus could speak."

"Of course we can speak!" Compso said. "we just speak a different language than you mammals do. And I am the living prove that we are perfectly capable of learning the mammal language. And there are more dinosaurs here who can understand your language. Speaking is a different matter, that takes a lot of practicing."

"You don't want to know how difficult it was to learn him to speak like us," Buck said. "especially since he was a teenager. You know what teenagers are like. I should know, I was the nightmare of every parent when I was a teenager."

Diana giggled, and Elco snorted.

At that moment they heard once again a roar of this dinosaur called Rudy.

"We should keep moving," Buck said. "come on."

They started walking again, and Compso walked along with them. Diana smiled as she saw the two friends walking next to each other, making jokes all the time and laughing.

Though Diana had always been a person who liked to be safe, and she had always been afraid of so many things, she liked this tropical underworld. She almost felt at home in this jungle. Though she was scared of most of the dinosaurs, she did feel safe. But that last thing was probably all thanks to Buck.

Diana sighed, and stared at the one eyed weasel as she walked.

Anna came walking next to Buck.

"Mr. Buck," she said. "May I ask who this Rudy actually is? You have been quite mysterious about him."

"Buck, don't tell me you didn't tell them about… HIM!" Compso said.

Buck shrugged. "Look, lady," he said to Anna. "animals often get scared whenever I tell them about Rudy."

"Why?" Elco asked. "he doesn't sound very dangerous."

"Don't judge him by his name, mate," Buck said. "I just made it up for him, I thought it sounded cute, you know? It sounds as if he's my dog."

Elco just rolled his eyes and let Buck talk.

"Anyway, everybody calls him by a different name," Buck said. "I know the Spinosaurs call him 'Whiteclaw'. Some simply call him 'the beast' or 'the monster', or even 'the white giant'. Some even nicknamed him 'Snowflake'… some, including me."

"Yes, I'm sure it's all very interesting how everyone calls him," Elco said. "but who is he really. What kind of animal is he, where does he come from, why does everybody know him?"

Buck stopped and turned around to look at Elco.

"Lad, there's only one animal in this world that is truly feared by the others," he said, now serious. "He's huge, he has a white skin and burning red eyes, and he is known by many names, under which 'Rudy'."

"And his breath smells like rotting corpses," Compso said, with fear in his voice.

"That's true, the old boy should really brush sometime," Buck said. He gave Compso a weird look, and then started laughing so loud that the birds and insects in the trees suddenly all began to fly to other trees.

"What, I was being serious," Compso said, while watching Buck laugh his head off.

"So are you ever going to tell us who this Rudy-person is, or should we just stand here until the ground moves under our feet." Elco said.

Buck stopped laughing so suddenly that the weasel family and Compo jumped up, and Diana even gave a short screech.

"Rudy is the one that gave me this" Buck said, and his voice had now a scary tone. He pointed at his eye patch. "That old Baryonyx slashed my eye clean out, with one single movement of his enormous claws."

Diana looked at Buck, and suddenly felt so much pity for him. The poor thing lost his eye. That must have hurt very much. Was he scared when it happened?

"What is a Baryonyx?" Liza asked.

"That's a dinosaur, you genius." Compso said with an annoyed tone. He probably still felt insulted because Buck had not taken him serious.'

"But Rudy is different form any Baryonyx you've ever seen, sweetheart." Buck said to Liza. "But we have not time to talk anymore. I'll tell you the story of how I met Rudy when we have found a safe place to sleep. Now let's move, before there will grow roots on our feet and we're all forced to live as trees for the rest of our life, just like that poor old fellow over there." He pointed at a small tree.

And with that they continued walking. Compso walked next to Diana now.

"Sorry for Buck's behavior," he said to her. "he's been alone for too long. He kind of… lost his mind."

"the poor thing," Diana said. "he must be very lonely."

"Often, yes," Compso said. "but I'm his friend, and not a made-up one. Of course, he has so many places in this world where he lives, and I only have one. So…" he stopped and looked at Diana. "…Are you listening?" he asked.

Diana nodded slowly. "Yes," she said, without really looking at Compso.

Compso frowned as he looked from Diana to Buck, and back again. He had this feeling Buck was somehow in for a lot of trouble. Though, it would certainly not be the first time.


	9. Chapter 9 - Buck's story

**The Underworld**

**Chapter 9 – Buck's story.**

…

"Okay, mammals," Buck said. "How about I tell you a story."

It was night, and the weasels and the dinosaur had decided to camp in a hollow between two huge rocks. They had just ate some eggs that Buck and Compso had stolen from a dinosaur, and Buck has also made a small fire.

"I'd love to hear a story," Diana said, looking at Buck in admiration.

"Yeah, why don't you tell about how you met Rudy?" Liza said.

"Oh, please," Compso said. "I just ate."

Buck ignored him. "Good idea, love," he said.

He stood up, cleared his throat, and began to tell the story.

"It happened when I was only eighteen. I was a young lad, just ran away from home, I had only been in the dinosaur world for a few months. I still had two eyes and a mullet.

It was a very dark night, and I was tired from exploring the Underworld all day. So I hid in a hollow just like this one to spend the night. Soon I saw dark clouds gather underneath the roof of the dinoworld, and I knew that a storm was coming. In the middle of the night, that same storm woke me up. It was more like a hurricane. The wind almost blew me away, it was raining cats and dogs, and the thunder was deafening. The lightning hit a tree just next to me, and I almost died of shock. I did not expect any dinosaur to go out with this weather.

But one dinosaur did defy the rain and lightning. I did not notice it until it was too late. I could not see anything because of the rain. I could not hear anything because of the thunder, but I suddenly felt that someone was looking at me, and I smelled that nasty breath of the beast. And slowly, I turned around.

There I was, a young, naïve weasel, by back against the wall. No way out. Staring into the eye of the great white beast.

I could not move, I was petrified with fear. I could hear Rudy's soft growls now. I could see his enormous, red eye right in front of me.

Then the beast slowly raised a claw. I was still not able to move a muscle, and the next thing I knew I was flying through the air with a horrible pain in my right eye.

I landed in the mud. I slowly sat upright and tried to touch my right eye, but all I felt was a hole in the place where the eye had once been, with blood flowing out of it with every heartbeat.

I did not have much time to gather myself. I heard Rudy roar again, and looked up with the one eye that was left. Rudy was towering over me.

I panicked. I was able to stand up and I ran away. But while running, I realized I could never outrun this huge monster. So I decided that the only thing I could do was defend myself.

I climbed in a tree. I was a very tall tree, and when I was in the top of it, I was above the storm. I tied a leaf around my eye to hide my wound, and took a stick to defend myself with.

There I waited, in the top of the tree, the storm roaring beneath me.

Sometimes I was a glimpse of Rudy in the storm. I looked around, not knowing where he could appear. And then I felt something approaching me from behind my back. I turned around, and the last thing I saw was Rudy's enormous, opened jaws…."

There was a silence.

"Oh, come on!" Elco said suddenly. "You really expect us to believe that you died? That just proves this whole story is probably made up."

"I did die." Buck said.

"No you didn't," Elco said. "You're right here in front of us."

"I died, I swear," Buck said. "but I lived."

Elco raised an eyebrow. "That makes no sense at all," he said.

"Yes it does," Buck said.

"No it doesn't," Elco insisted.

"It makes lots of sense," Buck said.

"It completely makes no sense," Elco said. "And you don't make sense either."

"Wiener!"

"Lunatic!"

"Softy!"

"Show off!"

"Sorehead!"

"Bucktooth!"

"Ratface!"

"Guys, please," Dorian said. "let's just not fight for a moment and listen to the story in peace, okay?"

"Right you are, oldie," Buck said. "now… where was I?"

"You were trying to convince us that you were dead." Elco said, still angry.

"Oh, right," Buck said. He cleaned his throat again, and continued:

"Never have I felt so alive, then when I was so close to death. Just before Rudy could swallow me, I grabbed hold of that gross, pink, fleshy thing that dangles at the back of his throat. I hung on to that thing, and I swung back and forth and back and forth…."

He continued saying 'back and forth' while actually swinging back and forth in mid-air, until Elce said: "Hey, are you going to finish this story or what?"

Buck stood still with a weird look on his face for a while, but then he continued. "…. Until I finally let go, and I shot right out of his mouth. I broke right through his teeth, and honestly, I do not know exactly what happened after that. I just woke up the next morning, all dirty and cold, in the mud, with one eye and a dinosaur tooth in my hand.

And though I may have lost an eye that day, I got this."

And with those words, he turned his knife around in his hand a few times, and held it high so that everyone could see it.

When the weasel family just stared at it without saying anything, Compso explained: "That's Rudy's tooth."

"Oh, I get it," Liza said.

Buck sat down.

"Was that a story or what?" he said with a grin.

"I don't believe a word of it." Elco said. But he was ignored.

"You were amazing," Diana said to Buck with a sigh.

"I know," Buck said.

"I can't believe you actually did all that," Diana continued. "you were so brave."

"Yeah, I'm well-known for that quality," Buck said, but he started to sound a little nervous because of the tone in Diana's voice. He moved a little further away form the young female weasel, almost as if he was afraid of her. Diana didn't notice.

"I still think it's nonsense," Elco said. "you just made the whole story up. That Rudy-guy probably too."

"You are unbelievable," Buck said. "can you never shut up?"

"You can't tell me to shut up," Elco said.

"Yes I can," Buck said. "I'm in charge here, mate. So, shut up."

"You'd better listen to him for once, Elco," Dorian said to Elco, in such a way that only them two could hear it. "he is right: he's the one who's in charge."

Elco wished that they could be home quick. He couldn't stand Buck, and the way Diana acted towards the one-eyed weasel just made sick. She acted almost as if Buck was a god. He wasn't perfect, nobody was. And most certainly not Buck.


	10. Chapter 10 - Buck's real story

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 10 – Buck's real story.**

…

The next day, Buck woke the rest up very early.

"You said that I could sleep as long as I want," Liza said, still sleepy.

"Not now that Rudy is awake," Buck said. "We have the reach the exit before Rudy catches up with us."

Elco stood up, but then fell on the ground again.

"What is it?" Buck said, rolling his eye in annoyance.

"My foot," Elco said. "it hurts."

Buck took a quick look at Elco's foot.

"Nonsense," he said then. "you're fine, now stand up."

"If I say I can't stand," Elco said. "then it's true. My foot really hurts."

"Well, then I'm afraid there's only one thing I can do," Buck said, and he grabbed his knife. "I'll have to chop of your foot!"

Elco immediately jumped on his feet. "No, no, I'm fine!" he said. Then he looked very angry when Buck, Liza and Compso started laughing, and Diana giggled softly.

"Buck is right, Elco," Liza said. "you are whining!"

"Okay, enough jokes," Buck said. "let's move."

And so they continued their journey. To describe all the things they went through on their journey, would take much too long. They were in trouble often, but Buck was always able to save them. And this made Diana only admire him more. He was the bravest weasel she had ever met.

They traveled all day, and when the night began to fall they looked for a safe place to spend the night, made a fire, and listened to Buck's stories while eating.

Compso, who had nothing better to do, decided accompany them during the entire journey.

Elco's foot became better, and soon he could walk normally again. He was still complaining about how much it hurt, but everyone could understand that he was just trying to be 'poor Elco'. There was nothing wrong with his foot. Buck only had to grab his knife, and Elco was reminded of the cruel joke about cutting of his foot, and he would stop complaining.

And so the weeks passed by. They passed by too fast in Diana's opinion. And when one day Buck told them they would reach the exit in a few days, the young weasel girl wasn't relieved like the others. She was disappointed. In a few days she would leave this dangerous yet wonderful world. In a few days, she would never see Buck again.

That night Diana almost couldn't eat. She didn't hear half of the story Buck was telling (something about a tyrannosaurus-rex and a clamshell). And when everybody fell asleep, Diana was awake.

She couldn't understand herself. She loved her home, so why wouldn't she want to go back there?

Because she knew she couldn't sleep anyway, she stood up and walked to the top of the hill that was near the place they were camping. There she sat down, and looked up.

But there weren't any stars here. The sky was empty, for the roof of the Underworld covered the stars. And now finally Diana felt like she longed to her own home. Just a little, but the feeling was there and she was grateful for that. Things were starting to make sense again.

The Dinoworld had many wonderful things. But there were some things it didn't have: the sun, the stars and the moon. That was a thing only the cold, icy world of above had.

And Diana missed the stars.

"They can say about me what they want," a voice behind her said. "but I do have some experience with women. And if I'm not mistaking, something is troubling you."

Diana looked behind her, and saw Buck standing there, leaning on his knife.

She sighed.

"I'm confused," she said.

Buck sat down next to her. "Do tell," he said.

"Well…" Diana said, and she was blushing. "it's just… I don't know what I want."

"I don't know either," Buck said. "I'm not even sure if I want to know." He smiled at her, and Diana wasn't sure if what he just said was a joke, or that he was being serious.

"When you told us we are close to the exit, I wasn't relieved," Diana continued. "I felt… well, disappointed. I didn't want to leave this world. Is that strange?"

"Depends on how you look at it," Buck said. "The first time I came here, I fell in love with this world and I never left. But of course, I did not have any other home."

"You didn't?" Diana said.

Buck shook his head. "Nope," he said. "I was a lonely, young weasel, looking for adventure. I had been traveling for months when I discovered this world."

"But you were just a child," Diana said.

"Teenager, to be exact," Buck said. "about seventeen years old. And this year that's exactly seventeen years ago."

Diana gasped. "It's been that long?" she said.

"Or was it eighteen years… I'm not sure. I lost count over the years, you know." Buck said.

"But…" Diana said. "…why? Why did you stay here so long? Why were you alone? Where was your family?"

"My family," Buck said, and Diana suddenly heard something in his voice that sounded like… hatred. "don't start about my darn family. They were all the same. Always blaming me, always punishing me because I didn't follow their stupid rules. You know what? I was happy when they finally decided to banish me from their home."

"Banish?" Diana said.

"Aye, banish. I didn't mind that at all. That place had never been my home, so why should I care about it? This is my home. This world, and nothing else." Buck sounded angry.

"I'm sorry," Diana said.

There was a silence.

"Can you tell me what happened?" she said then, softly.

Buck sighed. "Why should I bother to hide it," he said, and he began to tell his story.

"I was the last born in my family. I came from a litter of four weasels, but because of the cold, my siblings died. My mother wasn't happy at all with more children. She had already had a litter of three many years before my birth, and because her husband, my father, just left her she wished I was never born. My big brother Thomas, the oldest of the children, has always hated me. I don't know why. My other brother Philip actually never paid attention to me. He was always hanging out with his friends. My mother did take care of me, but never actually seemed to care. She was only doing her duties as a mother, life feeding me. But that was it. Then there was my big sister Suzy, who was maybe the only one who actually seemed to care about me. Though she was also very often hanging out with boys, she sometimes had the time to play with me. Still most of the time I was alone.

When I reached my teen years, I started to realize that I wanted more in life than that stupid village I lived in, and a family the didn't care. I wanted to look for adventure.

When I told Suzy, who was the only one who would sometimes listen to me, about this, she suddenly turned angry. She said I was ungrateful and stupid, and that I wouldn't survive alone out there for a second. I was offended by this, and to prove her wrong, I spend a week in a dark forest, that was known well because they said a pack of sabers lived there. The sabers found me one day, but I was able to escape, and only my left ear was damaged.

I came back and proudly told my sister about my adventure. I had indeed proved her wrong, but she wasn't proud of my at all. She immediately told everything to the rest of the family, and when I came back from hunting that afternoon, they were all waiting for me.

Thomas told me that if I was not able to adapt to their way of living and obey to their rules, I could not be part of their family. And when I said I wasn't sure if I actually belonged in the family, they send me away. I didn't mind, because I knew it was all for the better. "

Here Buck stopped for a while, and he stared at the roof of the Underworld. Then he sighed, and continued the story.

"I traveled for months, and I had no idea where to go. I thought traveling alone would be exciting. Why else would my father leave his family for it? But I was only bored. And lonely.

And that's when I discovered the Underworld. I spend the night in a cave once, and suddenly realized there was a narrow tunnel behind me. I was able to crawl through it, and I came out here. Once I was here, I decided I never wanted to leave. I was scared of the dinosaurs first. But after I got attacked by Rudy and lived to tell about it, I though: if I can handle that monster, I can handle everything."

"But you still were lonely," Diana said.

"Perhaps," Buck said, shrugging. "but not always. I was married once."

Diana's eyes widened. "Really?" she said.

Buck nodded. "But It didn't turn out well. We were married for two months, and then she left me for some other guy. Then I decided I didn't mind being alone with those darn skulls. They are very impolite, but at least they're someone to talk to."

Diana didn't understand why anyone would ever leave Buck for someone else. To her, he seemed like the ideal man: strong, brave, a good sense of humor. Well, maybe his madness was the reason his wife left him. Maybe she was a person who couldn't handle that.

"I wouldn't leave you," Diana said.

"What?" Buck said.

Diana blushed. "Nothing," she said. "nevermind."

There was a roar. It could only be Rudy's roar. But it wasn't that far away anymore.

Buck listened to it. "Rudy is catching up with us." He said. "We have to be fast, or he'll find us before we reach the exit."

"Are you coming with us?" Diana asked.

Buck started laughing. "Of course not, sweetheart," he said. "I'm not going to leave this world. You know that, right?"

Diana sighed sadly and stood up. "Yes." She said.

"Wait…." Buck said. "you weren't being serious, were you?"

"No, of course not," Diana said with a fake smile. "I was only joking."

"Alright, then," Buck said.

Diana smiled weakly, and went back to the camp.

Buck stayed behind on the top of the hill.

"I have this feeling I said something wrong," he said to the stone next to him. "or is that just my imagination?"

Short silence.

"You're no help at all," Buck said then. He stood up, and went further away from the camp. He climbed in a tree, and from the top of the tree he looked over the Underworld. Somewhere in the distance, he thought he saw something whitish moving. He even thought he saw a flash of two glowing, red eyes.

He frowned.

"Too soon," he said to himself. "we're going to have trouble with him."


	11. Chapter 11 - The last battle of Buck

**The underworld.**

**Chapter 11 – The last battle of Buck.**

…

This was the end.

It was a beautiful but hot day in the Underworld. The birds sang, the sun was shining through the roof, there was no wind and everything seemed peaceful.

But right in front of the group of travelers was that chasm, and on the other side was that wall of rocks.

It was hard to see, but somewhere between the rocks was a small hole, big enough for weasels to go through. It was the only exit the Dinoworld had.

"How are we going to get there?" Dorian asked.

"Simple," Buck said. "I made that there a few months ago." He pointed at a bridge made of four vines and a series of planks. It didn't look very safe.

"Yeah, funny," Elco said. "So how are we really going to get over this chasm?"

"Like I said: with that bridge," Buck said. "it's the only way, mate. I'm sorry."

"See? He wants to get us killed!" Elco said.

Compso rolled his eyes.

"Can that weasel never shut up?" he asked Buck.

"I may be some disease, all that blabber-mouthing." Buck said. "Do you think it's contagious?"

Liza laughed, and Elco crossed his arms. "Not funny," he said.

"So," Buck said. "Like I told others before: the Buck stops here."

"Thank you so much for helping us, Mr. Buck," Anna said. "we wouldn't have survived without you."

"Well, obviously," Buck said. "if I weren't there, you would have been dead within five minutes. But, luckily Mr. Buckminster was there to help. Now, I will help you to get to the tunnel, but there I'll stop. You folks go first. Go on."

Carefully, Dorian stepped on the bridge as the first one.

The bridge rocked slowly from side to side, but other than that nothing happened.

"It's safe," Dorian said. "sort of…"

They all slowly began to walk. Buck waited until they all were on the bridge before he stepped on it himself.

But at the moment he moved, a soft breeze brought a strange smell. Buck stopped and sniffed.

The smell was the nasty scent of rotting corpses.

Buck stood there as if he was petrified. His heart was beating twice as fast. He suddenly felt epinephrine rushing though his veins.

Diana suddenly realized Buck was not coming with them. She stopped and turned around.

"Buck," she said. "are you…."

"Run!" Buck suddenly screamed. And at the same moment, a huge white dinosaur suddenly jumped up out of the nothing.

Diana screamed in fear when she saw him. He was huge, white, with flat, crocodile-like jaws, and on every hand were huge, grey claws. There was a scar on his muzzle, somewhere were one a tooth had been. His eyes were glowing red.

Rudy.

"Do what he says," Compso, who has standing right behind Diana, said. "run!"

Diana had already started running. But then she suddenly saw the image of Buck standing there in front of the huge dinosaur, all alone.

She stopped. She turned around, pushed Compso aside and ran to Buck.

"Buck!"

Buck tuned around and looked at her.

"No, stop!" he said.

But Diana didn't listen. She kept running until she had reached the one eyed weasel.

Rudy was roaring, and probably planning the best way to attack.

Diana wrapped her arms around Buck. "Come with us!" she said. "please, come with us. You don't have to fight Rudy."

"To fight Rudy is exactly what I want," Buck said. "now get our of here!"

"No!" Diana said. "you can't stay. You will be killed!"

"If that's true, it's a beautiful day to die," Buck said, and Diana did not hear any fear in his voice. Why wasn't he afraid?

"Please, Buck," Diana said, and she looked into his blue eye.

Buck shook his head. "You must go." He said. "you don't belong to this world, young lady. Just face it."

Diana looked at him with begging eyes. She felt like crying.

"Now go." Buck said. "go!"

And Diana ran back to the bridge.

When she stopped to look over het shoulder one more time, she saw how Rudy raised his claw.

Sobbing, she ran back to her family.

"Don't look back," Compso said. "go in the tunnel, quick."

Behind her, Diana heard the sound of the battle. She shivered when she heard a scream of pain. It was clearly from Buck. She wanted to do something. She wished she had forced Buck to come with them.

But something in his eye had had made her listen to what he said. She didn't know what it was.

She finally saw that she didn't understand Buck. She tried, but she just couldn't.

They went inside the tunnel. Compso went with them. For a long time Diana crawled on four legs through the narrow tunnel. There were almost no sounds here. It was as if the whole world didn't exist anymore.

This calmed Diana down a little.

Then, suddenly, there was a bright light. Diana blinked a few time before her eyes adapted to the light. Around her, everything seemed white. Soft snowflakes were falling aground her. The cold nestled in her fur, and she shuddered.

She was back in the world of above. The cold Ice Age.

The weasel family and Compso stood close together in the snow.

"This world is very cold," Compso said, shaking because of the cold he wasn't used to. "and white. Do you really live here?"

"Yes," Dorian said. "this is our world."

"Do you think Buck will be okay?" Liza said, worried.

"Are you kidding?" Compso said. "That weasel can survive everything, I'm most certain he's okay."

But Diana heard the tone in his voice, and she knew it: he was lying. He was worried about Buck too.

"So, what are you going to do?" Anna asked the small dinosaur.

"I'm going to wait here until it's safe again down there," Compso said. "then I'll return. I do not belong in the world. Just like Buck."

"Well, then," Dorian said. "we must go home now. Goodbye, Compso."

They all said their goodbyes, except for Elco, and they began walking.

Compso was left alone in the snow.

Diana walked slower than the rest. She couldn't stop thinking of Buck.

She was the only one that day, who cried for him.

...

...

Author's note:

Okay, before you are all going to kill me:

This story has not ended yet. Anything can still happen.

So I will ask you all to not kill me 'because I killed Buck' before you know the end of the story.

So, stay tune to find out what will happen next. I can tell you: the story is only now getting really interesting. :)


	12. Chapter 12 - is this the end?

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 12 – is this the end?**

…

_One month later._

…

It was time.

Diana looked at her reflection in the water. She looked pretty enough. A flower behind her ear, a bouquet in her hands. Today was the day that most animals would call 'the happiest day of your life'. To Diana, it wasn't. Because she wasn't happy.

When Elco proposed to her, she didn't exactly know why she said yes. Despite of his behavior towards Buck, he was still a friend of Diana, and he had always been friendly to her. His hatred towards Buck was mostly out of jealousy.

Diana missed Buck. She missed him more than any of the others. Actually, the others seemed to already have forgotten about the one-eyed weasel. They just went on with their lives like nothing happened. Diana couldn't get herself to move on. She told herself so many times: 'Buck is dead'. But she couldn't believe it. He had survived Rudy before, didn't he? But she didn't want to hope anymore. It made her feel terrible. Especially now.

She didn't want to marry Elco. When she said 'yes', she thought it was the best thing to do. But it wasn't. She had been wrong.

"Hey, Diana," someone said.

Diana looked behind her, and saw her sister Liza.

"Are you coming?" Liza asked. "Elco is waiting."

Diana sighed.

"What if I made the wrong choice?" she asked her sister.

Liza shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "I think you should just say that, I think. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," Diana said. "I'll be there in a minute."

"Okay," Liza said. "just be quick, I don't think Elco likes it to be waiting there all on his own."

When Liza had disappeared behind the hill, Diana stood up from the ground. The thing she wanted to do most now, was to run away. But where could she go? There was no place to hide here. They would find her anyway.

Then she noticed something. She was very close to the place where the chasm had appeared, through which she and her family had ended up in the Dinoworld the first time.

Without really thinking about it, she walked to that place. The chasm was still there.

Somewhere under her paws was an entire world. Somewhere under her paws were Compso, Rudy… and maybe Buck.

And then Diana made a decision. She would not let this be the ending.

She threw away her bouquet. She hesitated. But it went well the first time, so it would go well this time, too.

And so she jumped in the chasm.

…

The roar was very far away. It sounded as if the one who roared, was very tired. It was just one roar, then everything was silent.

Creyclaw was hungry.

He was lying in the shadow of a rock, next to his female friend Longclaw. He had become very skinny. He was more bones and skin than anything else. He knew he was slowly starving to death. But now he looked up, and he listened.

"Longclaw," he said. "did you hear that?"

Longclaw woke up. "Stop it, Greyclaw," she said. "there's nothing, you're hallucinating again. It's the hunger, it's making you see things that aren't there."

"No, I'm not," Greyclaw insisted. "I heard Whiteclaw. It was his final roar, he's going to sleep again."

The old leader suddenly appeared next to he two younger Spinosaurs. "I heard it too, Greyclaw," he said. "we have hope again."

"What is your plan?" Greyclaw asked.

"The strongest of our group must go to the river to catch fish," the leader said. "and then bring it here, so we have food again for some time. And you will be responsible for this mission, Greyclaw."

"Me?" Greyclaw asked. "Really?"

"Yes," the leader said. "Gather the strongest members of our group and go to the river. Catch as much fish as you can, as fast if you can. Be quick, but also careful. Whiteclaw might be asleep now, but the Dinohunter might be out there. There's much chance you will see him. If you see him: hide."

"Yes, boss," Greyclaw said. He stood up. "what will you do?"

"I can't go with you," the leader said. "I'm too old and too weak. But I know you will be able to do it, Greyclaw. You are still young and stong."

"Thank you, sir," Greyclaw said. "are you coming, Longclaw?"

Longclaw sighed. "Okay, okay," she said. "I'm coming."

Not much later, they had found a group of young Spinosaurs that were strong enough to make it to the river and back.

They carefully entered the jungle, keeping a sharp eye in case the Dinohunter would appear.

The Dinohunter had become more than just a hunter to the Spinosaurs. They were all afraid of him, told stories about him that became stranger and stranger every time. Mothers even told their children that if they didn't go to sleep early, the Dinohunter would come and punish them. Personally, Greyclaw didn't expect the Dinohunter to do that. But that didn't mean the young dinosaur wasn't afraid of him, too.

Longclaw had never seemed so afraid of the Dinohunter. She always said that she wouldn't judge him before she had actually seen him.

And nobody knew exactly what the leader thought of the Dinohunter. He said he was dangerous, but he had never said he was afraid of him. And he never seemed afraid, too. He talked about the Dinohunter with something that looked like… respect in his voice.

Creyclaw looked around again. No Dinohunter.

"Hey, you there," he said to a Ovriraptor that happened to pass by. "have you heard anything about the Dinohunter today?"

The Ovriraptor stopped. "No, sir," he said. "nobody, as far as I know, has heard anything from him in the last month. It's as if he just… disappeared into thin air."

As the Ovriraptor continued walking again, Greyclaw frowned.

Now this was something unusual.


	13. Chapter 13 - Return to the Underworld

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 13 – Return to the Underworld.**

…

When Diana woke up she immediately felt the safe warmth of the Underworld. She opened he eyes and looked around.

It was almost as if she had traveled back in time and was back at the moment that she first entered the dinoworld. Everything seemed exactly the same. Even Jasper was standing there, chewing on some moss.

Diana smiled. "Hello, Jasper," she said.

Jasper made a slow growling sound that sounded friendly. Diana was guessing that was his way to say 'hello' back.

"Which way must I go to find Buck's tree house?" Diana asked the Stergosaurus.

Jasper pointed with his head in the direction of the jungle.

"Thanks you," Diana hesitated. The she asked: "Jasper, have you seen Buck lately?"

Jasper's half-open eyes suddenly looked sad, and he shook his head.

Diana sighed, said goodbye, and walked into the jungle.

She almost got caught by a carnivorous plant, but was able to jump away from it's grasp right in time. She was used to these evil plants by now.

As she walked, she heard a buzzing sound. At first she thought it was nothing, but it became louder and louder.

She stopped walking and listened. She had never heard this sound before. And Buck had never told anything about it.

Wait a minute….

"Buck did tell us that there was something with this part of the jungle." Diana said to herself. She started digging in her memory. She knew he had said something, but what was it?

_"We can better be out of this jungle before the sun above the ground rises, because at that moment the forest will be full of Red Dragonflies. They only come out at that moment, but they're bloody dangerous. So, you can choose: get killed by a Red Dragonfly, or wake early."_

Then Diana remembered:

It was morning…

Something landed on her head. She felt six thin legs scratching over her skin.

Diana screamed in fear. She was suddenly surrounded by Red Dragonflies. She could hear their wings making a buzzing sound, she could see their jaws.

They were all very big. Their bodies were at least as long as Diana's. Maybe even longer.

She tried to run, but the dragonflies were faster than she was. She felt how they scratched her skin. In no time she had bleeding scratches everywhere.

She was starting to get dizzy. Her vision began to blur.

Then someone, a weasel, jumped in front of her while she was falling on the ground. She couldn't see the weasel very clearly, but she did se that he used some sort of weapon. A slingshot or something like that.

He used it to scare away the dragonflies. That was the last thing Diana realized before she fainted.

…

Elco was boiling with rage. How could she? She had just left him, standing there while everyone was laughing at him. She had humiliated him.

But he couldn't be angry with Diana. The poor girl was a victim in this just as he was. It was all Buck's fault. He had been alone with Diana many times. Who knew what he had told her? Who knew what he had done to her?

Now Diana thought that she should be with Buck. But she was wrong. She belonged to Elco, and not to that one-eyed lunatic. She had agreed to marry him, not Buck. He had always protected her, he had always been friendly to her. Had Buck ever cared about Diana the way he did? No, he hadn't. Elco was sure of that.

Everyone was in panic. Everyone was looking for Diana.

But Elco knew where she was. Only he knew, and he wasn't planning to tell anyone.

No, he was planning to follow her. And find her.

Or he would find Buck, if he was still alive, and show him that Elco would not let anyone take what belonged to him. He would make the one-eyed weasel with he was never born.

How, he didn't know. Buck was stronger than him, and far more skilled in battle. But Elco would find a way, he was sure of that.

The young weasel left his house and looked at the sky. The sun was setting. It would be dark in a few hours.

Maybe it was better to wait until the next morning.

Elco nodded. Yes, that was a better idea. He didn't know the Underworld that well, and he didn't want to get lost at night.

The thought of Diana spending the night alone in that terrible world hurt him. But he couldn't do anything now.

Tomorrow, he would come and save her. But now, he was first going to take a good night of sleep, so that he would have new, fresh energy in the morning.

He went back into his house.

…

Diana slowly opened her eyes. Her head was hurting, and her vision was blurred.

Where was she? What happened?

She remembered the Red Dragonflies. They had attacked her. But not only that. She had fainted. Why had she done that? The scratches hadn't been that terrible, had they?

Still she felt sick.

Had the dragonflies been poisoned or something like that? It was the only explanation.

Then Diana remembered the figure... that strange weasel that had saved her life. Or… was he really a stranger, or was it someone she knew?

She now realized that she was in Buck's treehouse, and that she was lying on a bed made of grass and leaves. Someone had taken care of her wounds, because they were clean and not bleeding anymore. There was also less pain.

She tried to move, but that made her headache worse.

Then she heard something. Something was moving, not so far from her.

"Who's there?" she asked. Her voice was only a whisper.

Someone came standing next to her. It was a weasel, but she couldn't see him clearly. She couldn't see if he was long or tall, or fat or skinny… she just couldn't.

But then she saw something blue in what was probably his face. Was it his eye? It could very well be a blue eye. A blue eye, like…

"Buck?" Diana asked softly.

There was a short silence.

"Not really," a children's voice said then.


	14. Chapter 14 - A companion

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 14 – A companion.**

…

Diana's heart skipped a beat.

It was a child! There was a weasel-child in this jungle, apparently alone!

She blinked a few times, and finally she could see normally again, and she looked at the face of the little weasel.

It was as if he heart was being stabbed with a knife. The child, a little boy who couldn't be much older than nine, looked so much like Buck. He had the same type of fur, but less messy, the same color of eyes, but he had of course two eyes, the same reckless smile on his face, the same way of standing.

Diana sat upright.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Sheldon," the boy said. "and who are you?"

"Diana," Diana said. She wondered if she was dreaming. But that couldn't be, this had to be real. That boy, Sheldon, that looked so much like Buck was really there.

"Did you save me?" Diana asked the boy.

Sheldon nodded. "Yes," he said. "if I hadn't come to save you, you would have been eaten by those things. They had already tried to poison you.

Poison. Diana thought. So that's where the headache and the fainting comes from.

"Why are you here?" Diana asked.

"No, why are you here?" Sheldon said.

"I'm looking for Buck," Diana said. "that… is a friend of mine. He's a one-eyed weasel, who…"

Sheldon interrupted her. "I know who Buck is," he said. "I'm looking for him too, you know. Maybe we should work together? You didn't seem to know this world very well. But I know everything about this place. Well, almost everything. But it's enough to survive."

Diana looked at Sheldon again. It was almost scary how much he looked like Buck. Especially those eyes…

It just couldn't be coincidence.

Diana remembered that Buck had told her that he had been married once. It was for only a short time, but who knew. It was possible.

"Are… " Diana said. "are you… I mean, is Buck… is he your father?"

Sheldon laughed. "No," he said. "I asked my mom, and she has never even heard of Buck."

"But you…." Diana said.

"Yeah, I know," Sheldon said. "I look a lot like him. Buck found that funny too, but he's not my father."

Diana thought for a while.

"Is you mother's name Suzy?" she asked then thinking Buck might be sheldon's uncle in some way.

"No," Sheldon said. "her name is Seetha."

"Oh," Diana said. "and your father? Is his name Thomas? Or Philip?"

Suddenly, the little boy looked sad. "I have no father," he said. "He just ran away because he didn't… well, because he didn't want me. Or because he didn't want my mother or my sisters. I'm not sure what it is, but he left us. Before I was born."

"Oh," Diana said. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Sheldon said. "I'm a bit like Buck. He had no father either. But my mother doesn't hate me, like Buck's mom hated him. My mom isn't sad because of my father left her. She's only very angry whenever we talk about him. She says, if he ever dares to show his face to her again, she will claw out his eyes."

At least his mother wasn't a weakling, like Buck's mother apparently was, Diana thought.

"Are you feeling better?" Sheldon asked.

Diana nodded. "Yes, thank you," she said. "where did you learn to take care of poisoned wounds?"

"Buck taught me," Sheldon said proudly. "he taught me everything he knows. He even taught me how to hunt dinosaurs, but he says I can't do that yet, because I'm too young. I'm only a junior-Dinohunter. And Buck, he is _the _Dinohunter. The one and only true Dinohunter. But he's teaching me. Maybe, someday, I will come and live here and take Buck's place when he's too old."

"You don't live here?" Diana asked.

"No, I live in the World of Above," Sheldon said. "I fell into the dinoworld once, and Buck found me. He brought me back to my own world, and on the way he taught me to survive. He was my best friend."

"But why are you here, then?" Diana said.

"I missed Buck," Sheldon said. "in the World of Above, I don't have any friends. They all think I'm weird. And my sisters only do girl stuff all the time. And my mother has to work, because otherwise she can't give us food. She didn't want me to go back to the Underworld, because she's afraid it's too dangerous. But I did go."

"Wouldn't your mother be worried?" Diana asked.

"Yes," Sheldon said. "But I'll come back. I only want to pay Buck a visit. The strange thing is: I can't find him. And in this season, he's always in this jungle."

Diana swallowed a lump in her throat. She had to tell him.

"Sheldon," she said. "I… I'm sorry to tell you this, but… it's possible that Buck is… well, dead."

Sheldon's eyes widened. But then he shook his head.

"Impossible," he said. "Buck can't die. He's too fast and too smart for that."

"He was fighting with Rudy…." Diana said.

"He fights with Rudy all the time, and he never has any trouble. Fighting Rudy is like his hobby."

"I'm not sure if he's dead, but the possibility is there."

"I don't believe you."

Diana sighed. She actually understood Sheldon. She couldn't believe it either.

"Okay," she said. "how about this: we will go and find Buck. Together. If we must, we will search the entire Underworld, but we won't stop until we find him."

Sheldon smiled. "Deal." He said.

…

"He can't have just disappeared into thin air." The old Spinosaurus-leader said.

"I don't know much about it," Greyclaw said. "but several dinosaurs said so: the Dinohunter seems to have disappeared."

The leader was silent for a while. Then he gasped. "Whiteclaw," he said. "no, it can't be…"

"You think Whiteclaw has killed him?" Greyclaw said. "well, if that's true then there's one danger for us gone."

"Yes, but who will fight Whiteclaw then?" the leader said. "Without the Dinohunter, the monster will be out of control. He could even destroy the entire Underworld. And then start with the World of Above."

Greyclaw gasped. "What can we do?"

The old leader shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "I really don't, but we must do something. Our entire world is in danger. And mark my words, Greyclaw, I will not let this world be destroyed. Sure as my name is Blueclaw."


	15. Chapter 15 - Compso Again

**The Underworld**

**Chapter 15 – Compso again.**

…

Sheldon was pleasant company during the journey. He talked a lot, and so Diana never had the time to worry, which was a relief for her.

The little boy was that 'the glass in always half full-type', just like Buck had been. He always seemed happy.

Sheldon was also a good fighter for such a small kid. He used his slingshot very often to keep dinosaurs, birds and insects at a distance. He told Diana that Buck has also taught him how to do that.

Diana though that Sheldon was almost like a child-version of Buck. Only he wasn't insane, he just had a great fantasy. That was one of the reasons Buck's insanity had never bothered him.

They had traveled for a few days now. They were heading towards Buck's home near the Chasm of Death, as Sheldon called it. Diana didn't want to ask why it was called that way, because she wasn't sure if she wanted to know. It didn't sound as a place a person goes to for fun.

They were making their way through plants and trees. It was difficult to see much in this part of the jungle. They had to fight their way through the plants.

Suddenly Shelodn stopped.

"I hear something," he said. And he took his slingshot and a stone.

Indeed, very close to them there was someone else fighting it's way trough the plants. And it was coming closer.

The next moment, the plants next to them moved, and they saw a mouth full of sharp teeth. Sheldon shot a stone at the creature, and then they heard a very familiar voice.

"Ouch!"

The creature that they first thought was attacking them, turned out to be Compso.

"Compso!" Sheldon said, dropping his slingshot and hugging the dinosaur.

"Huh, Sheldon?" Compso said. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for Buck, of course." Sheldon said.

"So am I," Compso said. He looked at Diana. "Hey, Diana. I thought you went back to the World of Above."

"I did," Diana said. "but I was too worried about Buck. And… also, I didn't want to marry Elco."

"What?" Compso said, confused.

"He asked me and I said yes," Diana said. "but later I found out it wasn't what I wanted. So I ran away, and decided to go search for Buck."

"If he is still alive," Compso said.

"I'm sure he is," Sheldon said. "Buck can't die."

Compso seemed uneasy, and he looked at the ground.

Then he cleared his throat.

"Listen, guys," he said. "I… after the battle, I went looking for Buck at the plaece where the battle took place."

"And?" Sheldon said.

"There was a lot of blood on the ground," Compso said. "and I found this."

He showed an old, but still green leaf. First Diana didn't understand what he meant, but then she saw it.

"Buck's eye patch," Sheldon said, who had noticed it too.

Compso slowly nodded.

"Of course, I don't know if the blood was from Buck or Rudy… or both, perhaps. And Buck might have lost his eye patch in the battle, but did survive. But it doesn't look too well, to be honest."

"What do you think Rudy will do to Buck if he did kill him?" Diana asked.

"Eat him," Sheldon said.

"Then how do we know for sure if Buck is dead, if we don't find him?" Diana asked.

"Well, there's one thing we all know about Buck," Compso said. "and that is that he never leaves his knife behind. He will carry it with him always. Unless… well, if he dies."

"So if we find Buck's knife, but not Buck, we must assume he's dead?" Diana asked. Somehow, this angered her. She didn't know why.

"I think so," Compso said.

Diana sighed sadly. Sheldon took her hand.

"Don't worry, Diana," he said. "we'll find Buck. I'm sure of that."

Diana smiled. "Thank you, Sheldon." She said.

"Let's go, then," Compso said. "I just searched in the Jungle of Misery and near the Chasm of Death, and Buck isn't there. Where shall we look now?"

"The nearest place is Buck's old cave next to the Eastern Desert." Shelodn said. "We'll go there."

"But Buck hasn't been there in years," Compso.

"That might explain why nobody has seen him." Diana said. "I vote we go and look over there."

"But…" Compso said. Diana could read fear in his eyes. "but, the Spinosaurs live there."

Diana looked at Sheldon. "Spinosaurs?" She asked.

Sheldon nodded. "Yes," he said. "they are big dinosaurs, and they used to live by the river. Rudy chased them away after he decided to live in the cave next to that river, and since then they live in the desert."

"And there's barely anything to eat in the desert," Compso said, and his voice was a little higher than usual. "so they will be hungry. Very hungry."

"They have to catch us before they can eat us." Sheldon said. "come on."

"This is suicide," Compso muttered as he followed Diana and Sheldon through the jungle, in the eastern direction.

…

"I know where he is," Liza said.

Anna turned around. "What?" she asked. "what are you talking about?"

"I know where Elco is," Liza said.

"You do?" Anna said, raising an eyebrow. "are you sure, dear?"

Liza nodded. "It's actually very obvious. He went into the Underworld."

"But Elco hated the underworld," Dorian said.

"That's true," Liza said. "but for Diana, he'd go back there. And so we also know where Diana is. She went back to the Underworld to search for Buck, and Elco went after Diana. Pretty obvious, isn't it?"

"And what do you suggest we should do?" Dorian said. "go after them?"

"You can stay here," Liza said. "but I'm going. Man, if Elco finds Buck he will break his neck. You know how he is."

"I think Buck will be able to handle him," Dorian said, shrugging.

"And what about Diana?" Liza said. "what if Elco find her, and brings her back here?"

"I don't see where you are trying to get, Liza."

"Oh, come on!" Liza said. "Diana went back into that terrible world to look for Buck. I think she's in love with him, and I'm sure she would want to stay with him. And then Elco comes and spoils the whole thing."

Dorian and Anna looked at each other, not knowing what to do.

"I'm going to stop Elco." Liza said.

She left the house, and began walking in the direction of the chasm that gave access to the dinosaur-world.

Soon her parents joined her.

"You're not going alone, Liza," Dorian said. "we're coming with you."


	16. Chapter 16 - Blueclaw

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 16– Blueclaw.**

…

A sound. Something was moving through the bushes.

Elco listened to it. Was it something big?

No that that mattered, because small things could be just as dangerous as big things here. Maybe it was better for him to run.

But he heard talking. He had learned that nobody in this dinoworld could talk, except for Buck and Compso. So it had to be one of them, or….

"Diana?!" Elco said.

"Elco!"

It wasn't Diana's voice. It was Liza's.

A moment later, Liza jumped out of the bushes. "There you are, Elco," she said. "man, how could you have survived for so long in this jungle?"

Elco cleared his throat, a little embarrassed.

"Hiding," he said.

He had actually wanted to go look for Diana, but the dinosaurs scared him. He didn't know what to do.

Actually, he was glad that Liza was here now. And soon also Anna and Dorian appeared.

"Have you gone completely nuts?" Dorian said. "you know you can't survive in this world. It's suicide!"

"Diana can't survive either, then," Elco said. "we have to find her."

"I'm sure she found Buck, and is perfectly fine." Anna said.

"You seem to forget something, madam," Elco said. "Buck is dead!"

Anna and Liza gave each other a look.

"Well, we don't know for sure, do we?" Liza said then.

"I'm not going home without Diana," Elco said. "I will not leave her behind. No matter if Buck is dead or not, we can not leave her here. She might be in danger."

Dorian sighed. "Alright, alright," he said. "we'll go and look for Diana. After all, you're right. We don't know if she's safe. But promise me, Elco, that you will let Diana make whatever decision she wants. Even if she… well, would want to stay here with Buck. Please promise that."

Elco sighed deeply. "Okay," he said then, not sure if he would ever keep that promise.

…

Diana indeed wasn't in danger. Not yet, at least. She, Sheldon and Compso had just arrived at the place where the jungle ended and the desert started. There they had to stop, because Compso refused to go further.

"Come on, Compso, don't be so stupid," Sheldon said. "we're in this together, remember?"

"I'm not going," Compso said. "I choose to live, thank you very much."

Sheldon rolled his eyes.

"He's afraid," he said to Diana. "he thinks the Spinosaurs are going to eat him."

"They will, mark my words," Compso said. "everyone is always picking on me. I'm always the one who gets attacked."

"That's true," Sheldon said, again to Diana. "Compso is like a magnet to accidents."

"So it's better if I stay here," Compso said. "you go look for Buck."

Sheldon shrugged. "Okay," he said. "come on, Diana. Oh, and Compsi, look out for the velociraptors. I smelled a few here, I'm sure they're around here somewhere, ready to attack."

Compso looked around. "Wait!" he said then. "I'm coming with you!"

Diana was sure Sheldon learned that little trick from Buck.

But Compso had been right. Not much later two Spinosaurs suddenly jumped form behind the rocks. They were huge, but not as big as Rudy. That didn't make them less frightening.

They were a male and a female. One of them was completely grey. The other had a little red in her skin, and long nails on her paws.

Compso hid behind Diana and Sheldon. "I knew it was a bad idea!" he said in a high voice.

"Talk to them," Sheldon said.

"What?!" Compsi said. "are you crazy?"

"You can talk the dino-language," Sheldon said. "so they can understand them. Tell them that I said that I want to talk to their leader."

"You want to talk to Blueclaw?" Compso said. "but he's…"

"Just do it, Compso," Sheldon said.

Compso sighed. Then he took a few careful steps in the direction of the two Spinosaurs and began to speak to them.

It sounded very strange to hear Compso talk in the dinosaur language. It was mostly some growling sounds, and Diana almost couldn't understand that that were actually words.

The two Spinosaurs gave each other a look. Then they started making growling sounds that sounded like laughter.

"They're laughing at us," Compso said. "I don't think they'll take us to Blueclaw."

"Then tell them it's about the Dinohunter." Sheldon said.

Compso said something to the two Spinosaurs again, and suddenly they stopped laughing and a serious look appeared on their faces. They said a few things to each other before they turned to Compso again. As they talked to him, Compso shighed.

"They will take us to Blueclaw." He said.

…

"Boss!"

Blueclaw woke up and saw Greyclaw and Longclaw standing next to him.

"What is it?" the old leader asked.

"These three want to talk to you, boss," Greyclaw said. He pointed at three small creatures next to him. Two mammals, and a compsognathus. Blueclaw recognized the compsognathus. He had dealt with that small creature before. The spinosaurs gave him the name 'Miniclaw', because he was small, foolish and easily afraid. Still Blueclaw wouldn't kill Miniclaw, for he knew that this small dinosaur was a friend of the dinohunter.

The two mammals were probably the same species as the Dinohunter. One was a female with a smooth brown fur, and very big, innocent brown eyes. The other one was a child with a lighter, messier fur and blue eyes. He had a slingshot in his paw.

"I'm listening." Blueclaw said.

The child and Miniclaw stepped forward.

The child began talking in the strange, complicated language of the mammals, which Blueclaw could not understand. Miniclaw translated it.

"We are here to look for the Dinohunter," Miniclaw explained. "he's been… missing, and we are trying to find him."

"So what are you doing here?" Blueclaw asked. "the Dinohunter hasn't been here in years."

"We though the reason we couldn't find him might be because he was in some place he isn't very often." Miniclaw said. "That's why we came looking here. We did not find him, and we ask humbly if we can leave your territory safely."

Blueclaw looked at Greyclaw. "What do you think?"

Greyclaw shrugged. "These three aren't enough to feed the clan," he said. "but if we let them go, we have absolutely nothing. As soon as the Dinohunter is found again, the jungle will not be safe anymore for us."

The child mammal suddenly started talking again, and Miniclaw translated it.

"If you help us, we can help you in return," he said. "the Dinohunter can make sure you will get the river back. And we will talk him into doing so."

Blueclaw suddenly smiled. "I see," he said. "we scratch your backs, you scratch ours. But to be sure, we want you to swear in blood. So that we know you won't betray us."

And so it happened.

Diana, Compso, Sheldon and Blueclaw all made a small cut in their front paws, and then joined them. (which was a little uncomfortable, since Blueclaw's paws were huge.)

The two mammals and the compsognathus left the desert, relieved.

Blueclaw stayed behind and watched them as they disappeared into the jungle.

"Boss," Greyclaw said. "was it wise to trust them?"

"They made a fair deal," Blueclaw said. "I think we might have overreacted about the Dinohunter. I've decided I want to meet him someday, so that I can know for sure if the rumors about him are true. They might not be, after all. If he had friends that will face all kinds of danger to find him, I can not believe anymore that he is evil."

"And we get the river back," Greyclaw said.

Blueclaw nodded. "I wonder how the Dinohunter is going to do that," he said. "but, he's the Dinohunter, after all. I'm sure he has his ways. I just hope his three friends will find him."

There was a long silence.

"So do I." Greyclaw said then.


	17. Chapter 17 - The Velociraptors

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 17 – the velociraptors.**

…

"_Please, Buck" Diana screamed. "please, come with us." _

_Buck looked at her and shook his head. "No, Diana," he said. "You have to go."_

_The next moment a chasm appeared in the ground, and the two weasels were separated from each other. Diana watched in horror as a white claw appeared out of thin air, and Buck was send flying through the air, leaving a trail of blood behind on the ground. His knife flew after him and landed in his stomach. But he had already become cold and silent. _

_Dead. _

"_Buck, no!" Diana said, as everything around her became black. She couldn't see anymore, but she could hear. She heard the voices of a thousand different persons, talking, screaming, laughing, crying. As if she heard the voices of all the animals in the world. _

_One voice became louder, until Diana could hear it: "let it go, Diana. Let it go."_

_But Diana shook her head. "No!" she said. "I will not! Buck isn't dead. He can't be."_

"_You will never be able to understand his ways, Diana," the voice said. "you will have to learn it someday: Buck can not belong to you."_

"_You're lying!" Diana said._

Diana woke up with a scream. "You're lying!"

Compso and Sheldon woke up too.

"What is it, Diana?" Compso asked. "Danger."

Diana swallowed a lump in her throat. "No, there's nothing," she said. "I had a nightmare, that's all."

"My mom says that if you have a nightmare, you must try to say to the scary monsters that they have to go away. And then they will. It worked for me."

"There weren't monsters in my dream," Diana said. "it was just…." She sighed. "nevermind. Let's go back to sleep. We will have to go out early tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Diana," Sheldon said.

"Sleep well, Diana," Compso said.

"Yes," Diana said. "goodnight,"

But while Sheldon and Compso fell asleep again, Diana stayed awake.

…

Dorian woke up.

He wasn't sure how or why he woke up, but suddenly he was sitting upright next to the fireplace with his eyes wide open. There was no fire in the fireplace anymore. Just some red glowing remains of what once had been wood.

Elco, Liza and Anna were all asleep. There was no sound, not even a breeze trough the trees. Nothing but endless silence.

It didn't feel good. Something was wrong, Dorian could feel it.

He carefully shook Anna's shoulder.

"Anna, dear," he said. "wake up."

Anna woke up a yawned. "What is it?" she asked.

"Ssh," Dorian whispered. "something is wrong, I feel it. It's too silent."

"What is it?" Liza said, who had woken up too.

"Ssh," Anna said to her. "your father says there's something wrong."

"Why are we whispering?" Liza whispered.

"What did you say?" Elco said, thinking Liza was talking ho him?"

"What?" Liza said.

"Sssh!" Dorian hissed. "be silent, you two."

He took some wood and threw it on what was left of the fire. Not much later, bright orange flames began nibbling the wood, and the weasels could see something again.

And they wish they hadn't.

Suddenly, a group of yellow eyes were staring down at them. The weasels looked at it in shock.

They were surrounded by a pack of Velociraptors.

Though they hadn't seen Velociraptors before, they recognized them from Buck's description of them.

They were a few feet taller than the weasels were. They all had yellow eyes with cat-like pupils, and long faces with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. They were standing on their two long back legs, and the short, brownish feathers that covered their bodies softly shone in the light of the fire.

They were all ready to attack.

Dorian had to think fast. He looked around, and then noticed a small gap between two of the smaller Velociraptors.

It was their only way out. But they needed a diversion.

Dorian took a deep breath as he made his decision. Now he finally understood how Buck must have felt when he sacrificed himself. Or at least, put his life as stake so that the rest could go on.

He had never understood the feeling better than now.

"Anna," Dorian said. "when I say three, you and Liza and Elco must run through that gap in the circle over there. Run as fast as you can and don't look back. Don't stop until you have found a place to hide."

"What?" Anna said. "Dorian, what are you…"

"One," Dorian said.

"Dorian…."

"Two,"

"Dear…"

"Three!"

While Anna, Elco and Liza ran away, through the gap, into the jungle, Dorian closed his eyes and jumped right to the throat of the leader-Velociraptor. His teeth sank into the dinosaur flesh.

But the Velociraptor was stronger. He slapped Dorian away with his short frond legs. Dorian landed in the center of the circle. He didn't even have the time to stand up, before all the Velociraptors jumped on him, teeth and claws prepared.

…

Rudy opened his eyes. Normally he slept for weeks after long battles with the creature he liked to call 'Hunter'.

But now he had woken up again. Though at first he had felt… satisfied after his last battle with Hunter, he now felt uneasy. There was something strange, something different.

He licked his lips. He still had the taste of the blood in his mouth. It wasn't just any blood.

He sniffed the air, and he smelled it: blood. When he closed his eyes again, he could see what the battlefield had looked like after the last fight: blood everywhere.

And that blood, did not belong to Rudy.


	18. Chapter 18 - Blood bath

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 18 – Blood bath.**

…

Diana, Sheldon and Compso had woken up early. Diana looked pale, and she had dark shadows around her eyes. She almost didn't sleep that night.

Still she didn't complain, and even though Sheldon and Compso said they didn't mind waiting a while so that she could rest, she insisted on going on. She wanted to find Buck more than ever. That dream she had last night worried her, even though it was just a dream.

They walked through the jungle, while above the ground the sun was climbing higher and higher into the sky, and the air around them became warmer.

As the birds and insects around them woke up, the two weasels and the dinosaur walked and walked. They were heading towards the Lava Falls. It was one of the many places Buck had made a home. It seemed like he had two new homes for every season.

If there were any seasons in the Underworld, Diana thought. As far as she knew, it was always warm here.

Sheldon, who knew what the map of the Underworld looked like, had explained that the Underworld was divided into several 'hunting-areas', as Buck called it. He himself had at least one house in every area. The areas could usually be recognized by the kind of dinosaurs that live there. In the desert-area lived the Spinosaurs at the moment, though before that it was the living area of the Troodons, who could live there easily because of their great intelligence, but were cased away by the Spinosaurs.

The Lava Falls were in the area where the Pterosaurs lived, and it was also the place where most Tyrannosaurus-rex mothers raised their children.

In the area that was usually called 'The Jungle of Misery' lived not dinosaurs. But it was the most popular area for the carnivorous plants.

Diana hadn't been in the west side of the Underworld yet. Sheldon said that there lived mostly small, lizard-like dinosaurs. There was also a pack of Compsoganthusses there. But the compsies lived about everywhere.

Suddenly the trees stopped. The three stood still where they were and looked around. They were at an open space in the middle of the jungle.

There was sand and rocks here. The only sign of life were two Triceratops, who were eating some leaves from the trees, not far from the weasels and the compsognathus.

"I've never been here before." Sheldon said. "how about you, Compso?"

Compso shook his head. "No," he said. "But I don't like it here."

Diana knew what he meant. This place had something strange about it, and it left a sour taste in her mouth. It was almost as if this was a graveyard. At least, it felt that way to Diana. The rocks looked almost like giant tombstones. The soft breeze trough the trees made a lonely, scary sound, as if someone was whispering.

Diana walked to the rocks, and Compso and Sheldon, who seemed a little afraid, too, followed her.

"This is a strange place," Diana said. "I don't know what it is, but I have this feeling… I don't know."

"Look!" Sheldon suddenly said, and he pointed down.

Diana looked at the sand under her feet, and understood what the little weasel meant.

The sand had a different color here. It was a very dark red, almost brown. It was as if someone had spilled… something here. The darker sand formed a trail that lead through the rocks. The three followed it.

Compso stopped for a moment and sniffed the ground. "Guys," he said. "Do you know what this reddish stuff is?"

Diana and Sheldon looked at him.

"No," Sheldon said. "what is it?"

"It's blood," Compso said. "dried blood, a few weeks old, I think."

Sheldon and Diana gave each other a look.

"Let's continue to follow the trail," Sheldon said. "perhaps we can find out who the wounded person was."

"Or dead person," Compso said, shuddering.

"No, he couldn't be dead," Compso said. "unless the dead can walk." He pointed at something in the sand. It was a half of a footprint. The rest had been erased, but a few of the toes were still visible.

"But it's possible that he was dying," Compso said. "I mean: this person must have lost a lot of blood."

"That's true." Sheldon said. He bit his lip. He didn't exactly look forward to seeing the dead body of some person who died a few weeks ago.

They continued walking. As Diana looked around, she saw more things that made her shudder. On some of the rocks were scratches made by huge claws, and worse: handprints of a mammal. Handprints in blood. Diana stopped and touched one of the handprints. They were bigger than hers, but not too much. They could have belonged to a male weasel.

They continued walking.

Then they stopped, because they could see they had reached the end of the blood trail.

Diana gasped at what she saw next.

…

The sun began to rise, and slowly the battlefield became visible.

The Velociraptors had left, for they didn't think one weasel was enough to feed their pack anyway. They had gone after another, bigger prey that had walked by in the middle of the massacre: a relatively young Triceratops.

Slowly, Dorian realized he was still alive.

As he realized that, the pain began. Every single part of his body hurt.

But he was still alive. He opened his eyes, but he couldn't. He tried to move his arms. One he could move, the other one just didn't work.

With one hand he rubbed his eyes, and so removed a lot of half-dried blood. Now he could open his eyes, and he could look around a little.

Around him he was paw prints of the Velociraptors, and blood. The blood was his, he knew that.

The arm that he could move had many bleeding scratches on it. The other arm was lying in a very strange angle next to his body. He couldn't move it, and if he tried, it was like someone was poking him with a thousand of sharp needles. So he didn't try it again.

But he had do move. He was an easy prey for scavengers.

He was able to lean on his good arm a little. He became dizzy, and for a moment everything was black. He had lost too much blood.

He recovered and tried it again. He was still dizzy, and it was as if someone was hitting him on the head with a hammer the whole time.

Pain went through his entire body as he moved. But he wouldn't give up now.

He moved his left back leg.

Nothing happened.

He tried it again, but again nothing happened.

Suddenly, Dorian realized that his left back leg was the only thing that he couldn't feel. With much pain and effort he was able to turn around a little to look at his legs.

His leg was gone. All that was left of it was a bloody stump.

Dorian wasn't able to stay conscious.

He fainted.


	19. Chapter 19 - the knife

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 19 – the knife.**

…

Diana couldn't move for a moment. She could only stare at what was there, in the middle of the blood-covered sand.

There was no body, no bones, nothing that proved someone had died here.

But in there, right in front of them, was a knife. It was standing with the point in the sand, and there was blood on it.

The knife was made of a dinosaur tooth. Diana knew that there was only one knife like this in the entire Underworld. It couldn't be a mistake.

But Diana wish it could.

It was Buck's knife.

Diana didn't need to look at Compso and Sheldon to know that they saw and knew the same thing. It was Buck's knife, and Buck was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly Sheldon turned around and ran away.

"Sheldon!" Compso said, and he followed the boy. He could easily run into danger.

Diana didn't say anything. Left alone in this blood bath, she walked to the knife and puled it out of the ground. It was heavy, and Diana had to use both hands to carry it.

She looked at the knife for a while, not knowing what to do or what to think. Then she looked around.

She only now noticed a few large footprints. They could only belong to Rudy.

She thought of the last time she had seen Buck. How he had told her to leave him behind. That strange look in his eye that she still could not understand.

When Compso and Sheldon came back, they found Diana sitting on the ground with the knife in her hands, crying.

…

"Dad!"

The voice sounded far away, but Dorian could still hear it. Who was it? He opened his eyes.

"Dad, you're awake!"

It was Liza, who was sitting next to him on a stone. She looked worried.

"Liza," Dorian was able to mumble. "what happened?"

"What happened?" Liza said. "I'm glad enough that you're alive. I don't care what happened! I thought you were dead. We all did."

"Did you come back for me?" Dorian asked.

"Of course," Liza said. "mom and I wouldn't leave without checking if you were… well, still alive and in one piece. And… about that last thing…"

Liza looked uneasy and bit her lip.

"I know," Dorian said. "my leg."

"I'm so sorry, dad," Liza said.

"No, don't be," Dorian said. "I'm lucky to be still alive, so I can't complain about that old leg, can I?"

Liza smiled a little.

Elco appeared. "I can't find anything good to eat," he said. "only some fruit. It's too dangerous to go hunting."

"As long as it's something to eat," Liza said.

"Yes, but Dorian will need meat if he wants to recover," Anna had appeared too. "he's a weasel like us after all."

Anna kneeled next to her husband. "Are you alright, dear?" she asked, while checking his wounds.

"Except for the fact that I was almost killed and eaten by dinosaurs," Dorian said. "I'm actually fine."

"You arm is going to be better," Anna said. "it's already less swollen. I… don't know about your leg, though." She frowned while biting her nails. She seemed a little nervous.

"I'll learn to live with it, Anna," Dorian said.

"Well, now that that's done," Elco said. "how in the world are we going to move on? Dorian can't walk."

"Maybe we should wait here until he can?" Liza asked.

"He just lost his leg, Liza," Elco said. "I don't think he will ever walk again. Also, he needs to eat meat, so we will have to take him to our world soon."

"Sorry," Liza said.

"We will have to carry him," Anna said. "I will make something for him to lie on."

"Won't that just slow us down, if two have to carry Dorian the whole time?" Elco said.

"Well, we're not leaving him behind," Anna said. "and that's final."

And so it happened.

…

Diana's eyes were still wet from the tears.

She, Compso and Sheldon had left the jungle. They actually should be careful. Now that there were no trees, they were an easy prey for Pterosaurs. But they didn't think of Pterosaurs. All they thought of was Buck.

How could it have happened? How could Buck have failed?

At least they knew he hadn't died at the fight near the exit. He had survived that fight. But the second fight, apparently not.


	20. Chapter 20 - Survivor

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 20 – Surivor.**

…

"We're lost," Elco said.

Dorian sat upright. "So what do we do?" he asked.

"I don't know!" Elco said angrily. "I don't know anything about this world. I don't know where we are, I don't know where we must go, and I even don't know what kind of animals will attack us this time."

"You sound as if you blame us," Anna said.

Elco was about to say something back, but he thought better of it and remained silent.

"If Buck were here, he could have helped us," Dorian said.

"Shut up about Buck!" Elco said. "I'm tired of hearing about him all day. 'Buck this, Buck that. ' That weasel is dead by now, just face it!"

"Don't you use that tone against us, young man." Anna said. "it's not our fault." She had to admit, Elco suddenly didn't seem that nice to her anymore. All he could do was yell at everyone, blame everyone and just be angry all the time.

'God knows what I was thinking when I allowed him to marry my daughter', Anna thought.

"Hey, guys!" Liza said, looking around some rocks in the middle of the open space in the jungle where they were now. "Look at this!"

Anna and Elco came closer, and Anna gasped.

"Where does all that blood come from?" she thought out loud.

"And look at this," Liza said. "paw prints. Apparently two weasels and a dinosaur."

"Buck, Diana and Compso?" Elco said.

"No," Liza said. "These paw prints here are too small, they belong to a child. And the others are also too small to be Buck's. But they might be Diana's."

"Then we're not lost after all," Anna said. "we can just follow the paw prints. With some luck, we'll find Diana."

"Good idea," Elco said. That was about the first friendly thing he had said in a week.

They went back to Dorian to tell him about the plan. He agreed, and they continued their journey in the direction where the paw prints pointed.

…

Rudy couldn't bear it anymore. He had never had any trouble sleeping. Why would he have it now? What was going on, where was the problem?

He wondered if he might be getting ill.

No, that was nonsense. He had never gotten ill. There was something else. Something on his mind, that made him feel restless.

A growl sounded from deep in his throat.

'Hunter, why must you torture me even now?' he thought, looking up at the sky through the opening of his cave.

…

Diana hadn't eaten anything that day. She didn't feel like eating. Only the thought of it made her feel sick.

Compso was worried about her. But he didn't know what to do. She was sad because of Buck, and so were they all. Sheldon hadn't spoken to anyone the past two days.

Of course, Compso was sad too. But he didn't want Sheldon and Diana to perish from their sadness. He would do anything to help them, but the problem was that they didn't seem to want his help.

Buck would have wanted them to move on. Compso was sure of that.

"Life is short," Buck had told him once. "So you might as well enjoy it as long as it lasts."

Compso sighed. Something wasn't right about all this. He didn't know what it was, but he knew something was wrong. As if there was a piece of a puzzle missing, and he didn't know what or where it was.

He noticed Diana was falling behind, so he stopped to wait for her.

And at that moment, there was a whooshing sound. A shadow flew over their heads. Compso and Sheldon both looked up, and saw a big Pterosaurus falling from the sky, his back legs stretched, ready to grab his prey.

"Run!" Sheldon screamed out, and he began running in the direction of the jungle nearby. Compso followed him.

Diana, who noticed slightly later what was going on, started running too.

"This way, Diana!" Compso screamed at her. "Come on!"

Diana ran. But she hadn't eaten anything that day, and she felt weak. Black spots came in front of her eyes, and her legs couldn't carry her any longer.

She fell, only a few feet away from Compso and Sheldon's safe hiding place.

The whooshing sound became louder as the Pterosaur dove towards the young weasel. Diana closed her eyes.

There was a thud.

Diana couldn't move for a few moments. Then she realized the Pterosaur hadn't pierced her back with it's sharp claws.

She opened her eyes, and noticed that the Pterosaur had landed next to her in the sand.

She raised an eyebrow. This made no sense.

But it began to make sense when Sheldon suddenly came running towards the Pterosaur and hugged the large flying reptile.

"Roger!" he said. "It's you."

Compso appeared too. "Roger?" he said. "Bloody hell, it is him. Don't even do that again, Roger. It hought I was gonna die!"

"R-Roger?" Diana said, still a little in shock.

"He's another friend of Buck," Sheldon said.

Roger nodded. It appeared he could understand the mammal language, but could not actually speak it himself.

Diana slowly let her breath escape. If Roger was a friend of Buck, she would trust him. She would trust anyone if Buck thought they were trustworthy.

"Does he know it?" Diana asked. "about Buck?"

Sheldon and Compso gave each other a look.

"I don't think he does," Sheldon said. He turned to Roger. "Did you hear about… well, that Buck… died?" He asked.

Roger raised an eyebrow and looked at Sheldon for a while. Then he sighed, and said something in Dinosaur-language to Compso.

"He wants us to come with him." Compso said. "Momma Dino wants to speak to us."

"Momma Dino?" Diana asked. "Who's that?"

"Also a friend," Sheldon said, while climbing on Roger's back and then helping Compso up. "But… please don't be frightened. She's a Tyrannosaurus-rex. But she's very friendly once you get to know her. And I'm sure she'll like you."

Diana hesitated. But then she decided that it was probably okay, and she also climbed on Roger's back.

Roger spread his wings, and a moment later they were flying over the dino-world.

Diana first felt dizzy whenever she looked down at the ground, so far beneath them. But after a while, she relaxed and had to admit she had a wonderful view. She could almost see the desert in the east.

"I must be crazy to do this," She said to Compso.

"That's what Buck said." Compso said.

Diana now thought she understood what Buck meant when he said she and her family couldn't travel as fast as Buck could because they weren't insane. He was talking about flying.

And it was true: flying was much faster than walking.

After a while, Diana saw a red glow beneath her. She looked down, and saw an huge fall of lava.

"Lava Falls," Compso said. "this is where Momma Dino lives."

Roger landed on a few rocks, and let Diana, Compso and Sheldon get down. He said goodbye and flew away.

The three didn't have to wait long. Almost immediately after Roger left, the ground began shaking a little, as if someone very big was approaching. And then Momma Dino appeared.

Diana couldn't help but be frightened of her after all.

Momma Dino was a big, red tyrannosaurus. She wasn't very young anymore, but she still looked strong and healthy. And by the look in her eyes Diana could see that she wouldn't accept any nonsense in her presence.

"Hello, momma," Sheldon said.

Momma Dinosaur greeted the little weasel by giving him a friendly push with her huge nose. She smiled at Diana, and then made a short growling sound at Compso, that sounded like a curt 'hello'.

Then the big dinosaur turned around and started walking. Appearantly, she wanted them to follow her.

Sheldon, Diana and Compso followed Momma dinosaur through the rocks, until they reached the place where the rocks stopped and the jungle began.

Here there were some bones on the ground, probably from Momma Dino's past dinners.

A young female Tyrannosaurus was sleeping next to a few rocks. She was probably Momma Dino's daughter.

There was a small bed made from grass and leaves.

Diana blinked a few times, wondering why her mind was giving her this torturing illusion.

But when the person who was lying on the bed sat upright and looked at them with a grin on his face, saying "You look as if you've seen a ghost," Diana knew it wasn't an illusion.

It was real.

"Buck!" All three of them said at the same time.


	21. Chapter 21 - Love hurts

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 21 – Love hurts.**

…

Sheldon, Diana and even Compso all ran towards Buck to hug him. Diana cried tears of happiness. She almost couldn't believe it. Buck was actually still alive! It seemed impossible, but it was true. He lived.

"Careful," Buck said. "I can't breathe."

They finally all let him go and started asking questions. "Were were you," "What happened," "How did you get here," "Why were you gone for so long," "How did you survive," "Why did everyone think you were dead,".

Buck held up his hands.

"Calm down, mates," he said. "I'll tell you the entire story. But first: did you find my knife? I lost it."

"Here it is." Sheldon said, and he gave Buck his dagger back.

Buck smiled as he took the knife and looked at it for a while. He looked at it as if he saw an old friend again. Then he turned to Sheldon, and said: "It's dirty."

"We found it in the middle of some sort of blood bath," Sheldon said. "Between some rocks in an open space in the jungle."

Buck nodded. "Aha," he said. "That's the place where I last fought Rudy."

They all listened carefully, because they knew now he would finally tell his story.

"The fight between me and Rudy by the passage to the World of Above was terrible." Buck told them. "I was unprepared. His attack took me by surprise. I don't know what it was. Maybe I was too slow, maybe I was too unprepared. I really don't now why, but I was losing. In the end I panicked for the first time in years, and I ran away to hide somewhere.

I was badly wounded, and almost couldn't stand.

I stayed in a hole under a tree for a week. All I did was sleeping. And whenever I was awake, I was in some numbed state. I couldn't think clearly.

In the end, hunger and thirst gave me the will to move. I was dazed and weak, but I left the hole and went in search for something to drink or eat.

It seemed like fate had suddenly decided to strike against me. Good fortune seemed to be something that wasn't for me anymore.

I found nothing too eat. I was too weak and slow to go hunting. Also water I couldn't find. But even then I hadn't lost me will to survive.

For days I traveled in search for food and drink. Especially the last one, because my throat was dry, and I couldn't speak anymore because of it. My wounds didn't heal well, and I became weaker and weaker. In the end I couldn't even walk anymore. I had to crawl on the ground, using only my arms to move forwards.

And then I arrived at the open space in the jungle, where you three found my knife.

Rudy was there. I don't know why he was there, but I suddenly saw him in front of me.

And he attacked me again.

In don't remember most of the fight. I only remember that about every part of my body was bleeding. I couldn't defend myself.

In the end, I fainted.

And when I woke up, I was lying on the back of Shelly here."

Buck pointed at Momma Dino's daughter.

"She had found me and she brought me to Momma Dino. Momma is the one who got me on my feet again."

Momma Dino growled.

"Okay, okay," Buck said "almost, then."

Diana covered Buck's forehead with her hand for a moment. It felt warmer than usual. Buck apparently had a fever.

"I'm so glad that we found you, Buck," Sheldon said. "I really thought you were dead."

"Ahem," Comso said. "I… don't want to spoil the moment. But does anyone remember the deal we made with the Spinosaurs?"

"What deal?" Buck asked.

And so now it was the turn for Diana, Compso and Sheldon to tell their story. They told about their entire journey, and especially about the deal they made with Blueclaw.

Buck nodded when they told him that Blueclaw expected him to chase Rudy away from the river.

"I have never really talked to the Spinosaurs. But I will be glad to chase Rudy." Buck said. "Once I'm completely healed." He added, after Momma Dino gave him a severe look.

Diana laughed. She felt so happy now that she knew Buck was alive. She wanted to hug him and never let him go again. She was too shy to actually do so, but just seeing him again and being close to him already made her feel happy enough.

Just a few hours ago, she had felt like she would never be happy again. Now it was almost as if that never happened.

Momma Dino went hunting, and came back with a large prey.

Dinosaur-meat wasn't as disgusting as Diana had thought, and they had a quite decent meal.

They talked for hours, but eventually they all got tired and decided it was time to go to sleep.

Sheldon slept almost immediately. It didn't last long until everything was silent, except for the sound of Momma Dino's slow breathing.

But Diana was still awake.

She got up from the bed Momma Dinosaur had made for her, and walked to a rock a little further away from the rest where she sat down and looked at the sky. There were again no stars to be seen. Just the roof of the dinosaur world. Slightly blue, and it looked at if it was glowing. Diana knew that that light came from above the ground, from the moon and the stars.

She sighed.

"What's up this time?"

Diana looked over her shoulder, and saw Buck. She smiled at him.

"Nothing," she said. "I feel fine."

"Then why are you here and not at the camp, sleeping?" Buck asked.

Diana shrugged. "I don't know." She sighed again. "I'm just so happy that I found you, Buck."

When Buck didn't answer, Diana continued: "I was so afraid that I'd lost you. I kept having nightmares about it. But everything is okay now." She smiled at Buck again. "I mean, now that I'm with you…"

Buck suddenly seemed uneasy. He looked at the ground and cleared his throat a few times.

"Listen, lass," he said. "you're really sounding as if you… well, are planning to stay here."

Diana blushed. To be very honest, the idea did cross her mind a few times before. But was she really able to stay here and leave her family and the life she knew forever?

"I… I think I do want to stay here with you, Buck," Diana said eventually.

"I beg your pardon?"

Diana was blushing even more. "I was hoping we could stay here together," she said. "I think I love you."

Buck took a step back. "Whoa, whoa, slow down for a minute, lady," he said. "look, you're a very pretty girl, there's no doubt in that. But I'm not the guy for you. I mean… just look at how my last marriage worked out: she just left me for someone else…"

"I wouldn't leave you," Diana said.

"Okay, okay, maybe not," Buck said. "But you can't stay here, sweetheart. Not without me, and not with me."

"What do you mean?" Diana said. She felt hurt, and that could be heard in her voice.

Buck looked as if he was starting to panic.

"Don't take it personally," he said. "Really, I like you. You're nice and pretty and all, but I swear you can't stay here with me. Just imagine what it would be like: you staying home all day, me being out hunting, sometimes more than a week. Then all of my excuses to be home later become very lame, and you start thinking I'm cheating on you or something like that… it would all end up in a terrible drama and we would be forced to divorce again anyway."

"That's ridiculous!" Diana said, almost crying.

"And I just like my freedom, Diana," Buck continued. "I came here to be free, do whatever I want, not need to do anything I don't like."

"That's what I love about you." Diana said.

"And imagine if we ever had kids," Buck said. "this isn't a world to raise children in. It's too dangerous for little weasels here. Please listen to me, Diana. I'm not the guy for you. We are too different. I want to go chase adventure, live in the wild. What you want is a husband and a family. That's something I can't give you. And… and don't even get me started on age!"

"I'm nineteen years old," Diana said.

"It's even worse than I thought, then," Buck said. "Diana, you're practically still a child!"

"Your arguments prove nothing!" Diana said. "And do you have the slightest idea through how much trouble I went to find you? I left my home, my parents, my husband-to-be, the entire life that I knew. All so that I could find you. And this is how you treat me?"

"You got a point," Buck said. "But I just…"

"You don't love me, do you?" Diana said. "don't care one bit about me."

"Now, wait a second…." Buck started, but Diana cut him off.

"I thought you were different from all those others," She said. "I thought you were the perfect guy. I was willing to give everything I had to get you. And you just…" She didn't finish her sentence, and turned away from Buck.

There was a long silence.

"Nobody is perfect," Buck said. "especially not me. I'm about the opposite of perfect. I'm imperfect. I'm a crazy old weasel with an eye patch, who speaks to rocks and hunts dinosaurs. I'm very far from perfect."

Diana didn't say anything anymore, but silently went back to the camp, where she lay down next to Compso and Shelodon.

Buck didn't go back to his bed that night.


	22. Chapter 22 - The lost Dinohunter

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 22 – The lost Dinohunter.**

…

"We're lost again."

"Well, it's not my fault that the paw prints suddenly stopped. Those three must have done something weird."

"Are you saying they suddenly got the power of flight and flew away like birds? Elco, that's ridiculous."

"Of course I don't think that. But something strange must have happened."

Diana slowly opened her eyes, and noticed that those voices that se heard from the jungle sounded familiar. Were they real, or were they part of a dream she just had? She wasn't sure, because she had only been half awake when she heard them.

"Are you alright, dear?"

"I'm fine. I'm only a little dizzy. It must be because of the blood loss."

Diana suddenly sat upright. She knew those voices, alright. It were her parents.

She jumped up and ran to the trees. She pushed aside the plants, and then stopped.

"Mom, dad!" She said.

Four weasels looked at her.

"Diana!" Anna called out. She ran towards her daughter and hugged her.

"Oh, my dear Diana," she said. "I was so worried. Are you alright? We've been looking for you everywhere. I was afraid you were eaten!"

"I'm fine, mom," Diana said.

"Who were the two other who were with you?" Elco asked. "We found your paw prints."

"Oh, that were Sheldon and Compso," Diana said. "They're here, too. They helped me find Buck."

"You found him?" Dorian said. "So he's alive?"

Diana now finally took a better look at her father, and she gasped. "Dad!" she said. "your leg!"

Dorian nodded, a little sad. "I know," he said. "a little… accident with a group of velociraptors."

"Your father was willing to give up his life to save us all," Anna said, almost with tear in her eyes. "He survived. But… well."

Diana hugged her father too. "I'm so sorry, dad," she said. "it's my fault. I shouldn't have ran away."

"No, you shouldn't have." Elcos said. "I was humiliated, you know. The entire village was staring at me when I stood there waiting for you by the altar!"

Diana suddenly looked at him furiously. "I don't care," she said. "I didn't want to marry you anyway. I'm in love with Buck."

"What?!" Elco said. The look in his eyes was of pure shock.

"I told you," Liza said.

"So… you'd rather have some crazy one-eyed hermit than me?" Elco said.

"Yes," Diana said.

"And does he love you, too?" Elco asked.

Diana was about to say something, but suddenly she stopped. She thought of everything Buck had said last night. Did he love her? She wasn't sure. She hoped he did, but after everything he had said that night it could very well be that he didn't.

"See?" Elco said. "he doesn't even love you back. Are you sure you want to go through all that? To love someone who doesn't love you back is terrible." He sighed and looked at the ground. "I know." He added softly.

And suddenly Diana felt guilty. Elco wasn't as friendly as they all had thought. But he had feelings, and he could also be hurt. Just like Diana had been hurt by Buck last night.

But she didn't love Elco, and she just couldn't be with him.

"Hey Diana," a children's voice said. "who are you talking to?"

The plants were pushed aside, and Sheldon stood there.

"Oh, hi," he said to Elco, Anna, Liza and Dorian. "Who are you?"

"I wonder who you are!" Elcos said. "you look surprisingly much like Buck."

"I know," Sheldon said, and he sounded proud.

"I heard Buck has been married before," Elco said. "you don't happen to be his son from his previous marriage, do you?"

Sheldon shook his head. "Oh, no," he said. "my mom doesn't even know Buck. I just look like him, that's all."

"Sure," Elco said, and he didn't sound as if he believed it.

"I'm Sheldon," Sheldons said. "Buck trained me into a junior dinohunter."

"But your just a child," Anna said. "Shouldn't you be with you mother?"

"I wanted to see Buck again, so I ran away," Sheldon said. "But don't worry, I'll come back to my mother."

"She must be very worried." Anna said.

Sheldon shrugged. "Maybe," he said. "So, who are you?"

"I'm Anna, Diana's mother," Anna said. "this is Dorian, Diana's father, and Liza, our other daughter."

"And he?" Sheldon asked, pointing at Elco.

"Just some guy from our village," Liza said, shrugging.

Elco snorted.

Sheldon turned to Diana. "Momma Dino has found us some breakfast," he said. "are you coming? Your family and the guy from your village can come too."

"Some breakfast would be nice," Dorian said.

"Who's Momma Dino?" Liza asked.

"A tyrannosaurus-rex." Diana said. "but don't worry. She's friendly."

The weasels hesitated for a while, but then decided to trust Diana.

They were still a little frightened when they saw Momma Dino and her daughter Shelly. But the sight of the food made their change their opinion and not much later they were all eating.

"It's good to eat anything else than old fruit again," Dorian said. "What is this anyway?"

"Triceratops." Sheldon said.

Elco almost threw up when he heard that, and didn't eat anything anymore. Dorian, Anna and Liza did continue eating, but didn't seem to find it that tasty anymore.

"Where is Buck?" Compso asked.

Then Diana noticed: Buck was gone.

Momma Dino hadn't noticed it before either. She stood up and began looking for Buck in between the rocks. She also looked in the jungle, but didn't seem to find him.

She let out a loud roar that made Liza almost choke in her own food.

"What was that for?" Elco asked.

"She called for Buck," Sheldon said.

Suddenly Liza started screaming. And Diana could understand why, because suddenly a huge dinosaur had appeared. But Diana herself wasn't scared, because she knew this one.

It was Blueclaw.

…

Momma Dino growled.

"What are you doing here?" She asked the Spinosaurus. "This is my home."

"Don't worry, Motherclaw," Blueclaw said. "I've come in peace. To warn you and your mammal friends."

"For what?" Momma Dino asked.

"Whiteclaw has awakened once more," Blueclaw said. "he didn't give any warning, so it came as a surprise to all of us. He's coming this way."

"Why?" Momma Dino asked.

"There can only be one reason," Blueclaw said. "the Dinohunter. He must be still alive, and Whiteclaw is looking for him."

"I know he's alive," Motherclaw said. "I am the one who took care of him when he was almost dead. But he isn't strong enough to fight."

"Where is he?" Blueclaw asked.

Momma Dino sighed. "We lost him." She said. "he was here yesterday night, but now he's gone."

"So that's why I heard you calling for him." Blueclaw said.

"We must find him." Momma Dino said. "these mammals and the compsognathus here will help, I'm sure of that. So will my children."

"I brought Greyclaw and Longclaw with me," Blueclaw. "they are waiting t the bottom of the Lava Falls. I will tell them to look for the Dinohunter too."

"Alright," Momma Dino said.

The search for Buck began one more.


	23. Chapter 23 - a fight

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 23 – A fight.**

…

Buck breathed in the cool morning air. He felt a soft breeze through his fur.

The sun hadn't climbed very high yet above the ground, so it wasn't tha hot yet in the Underworld. Buck loved this time of the day. Everything was quiet, except for the small creatures that left their houses now to find something to eat before the hunters amongst the dinosaurs woke up.

But they didn't think of this smaller, yet not less dangerous, hunter.

Buck took his knife between his teeth and began walking on four legs. He could make himself almost invisible if he wanted, just by walking in the right way. He made no sound at all.

He stood on his back legs on a stone right outside the jungle and looked around. He sniffed the air, and then listened carefully. Something was moving not very far from him. His eyes followed the sound, and not far from him he saw a small lizard-like creature.

Without making a sound, Buck left his knife on the ground right next to the stone. On four legs he walked slowly towards the lizard. The small creature was busy eating a fly and didn't notice the approaching weasel.

Then Buck suddenly grabbed for the lizard with his teeth.

He missed and saw the lizard running away through the grass. The weasel blinked a few times. He hadn't missed a prey in years.

But he recovered and began running after the lizard. But soon he began felling dizzy. He stopped and stood on his back legs. He put a hand on his forehead, which was warmer than it should be.

"Blast this fever," Buck said. "All I want is a little hunting, is that too much to ask?"

He went back to the stone where he had left his knife, saying all kinds of nasty words that he could think of. With a sigh, he sat down at the stone and stared at the valley beneath him, where some Diplocosusses were walking and eating from the high grass.

He hadn't done anything exciting in weeks. Momma Dino was a very sweet, responsible woman, but she was also strict about certain things. And she absolutely forbid Buck to go out hunting or doing other wild things before he was fully recovered. But Buck was bored sick. He wanted adventure again.

And then there was the problem with Diana. He had to admit that she was pretty. And she was friendly too. A little fragile, perhaps, but still she was a nice girl. Buck had always seen her as a friend. A little sister, maybe. But never had he seen in her a possible mate for him. It was true: she was too young for him. And he just didn't feel like having a romantic relationship with anyone. His last attempt at marriage turned out very bad, since his wife had left him for some other guy. After that he had realized what starting a family would mean: staying home with the wife and kids. No hunting, no chasing Rudy, no dangers. In other words: boredom. And then the rules would come back. How he hated those terrible rules. Every family had rules, and Buck couldn't live by any rule.

But how could he possible explain that to Diana? She didn't understand. Or maybe she didn't even want to understand.

The thing wasn't that Buck didn't like Diana. The thing was that the only thing he truly loved was his freedom. And he just couldn't let that be taken from him.

Buck sighed. What was wrong with those people from the World of Above? He couldn't understand anything of them. Except Sheldon, he could understand him. But Sheldon was a bit like himself. The little boy had no father, and he was looking for adventure. And he also looked so much like Buck.

Buck had to admit he sometimes felt like a father to Sheldon. Sometimes. They were mostly just great friends, even though Sheldon was just a child and Buck a full-grown, slightly insane weasel.

And Buck also remembered the Herd. Manny, Ellie, Diego, Sid and those twins Crash and Eddie. And little Peaches, not to forget. They had also been great friends to Buck, even though the weasel hadn't always treated Manny that nice… he had said some pretty insulting things to the mammoth. But still, he had meant well. And Manny had forgiven him for that.

The Herd were the first creatures from the World of Above Buck had met after he fell into the dino world. It was even before he met Compso. But he was most certain already insane when the met the Herd, he was quite sure of that.

Except for the Herd paying a visit to the Dino World, those had been the lonely days of Buck's life in this world. Now, he almost wished he could go back to that loneliness. All those creatures from above drove him crazy.

Well, at least crazier than he already was.

Suddenly, the one-eyed weasel heard a sound right behind him. He stood up, turned around and grabbed his knife.

The plants behind him moved, and Elco appeared.

"There you are!" the young weasel said.

Buck put his knife down again. "Ah, so it's you," he said. "what the heck are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," Elco said. "Although it pains me to say that."

"Really?" Buck asked. "Is that the reason you came back to the Underworld?"

"Oh, no," Elco said. "the reason I came back to this terrible world is that I was looking for Diana. And actually, I was hoping to find proof that you were indeed dead. Unfortunately, it turned out you're alive."

Buck shrugged. "I suppose I am alive," Buck said. "if not… well, then I must say I thought Grim Reaper would be a lot less uglier than you are."

Elco growled. "Careful, Buck," he said. "I already hate you enough, don't make it any worse."

"Why exactly do you hate me?" Buck asked. "I saved your life… twice!"

"At first I had no reason," Elco said. "I just didn't trust you, that was all. But then you stole my fiancée."

"What?" Buck said.

"You know that Diana worships you like you are the ideal man." Elcos said.

"Diana?" Buck said. "So that is what this is all about; Diana? Well, you can have her. I don't want her."

Now it was Elco's turn to be a little surprised. "You don't?" He said.

"No," Buck said. "Not that I don't like her. I'm just not really looking forward to marrying and having a family. Especially not after my last wife left me…"

"But I though…" Elco said. "well, I knew you didn't actually love her, but…"

"If you think I'm that type of guy that wants to own girls, you're wrong." Buck said. "Also, Diana knows I don't want her."

Elco's surprised expression slowly turned bitter.

"I know," He said. "You broke her heart."

"Now calm down, mate," Buck said. "I know about this kind of things. Diana was just impressed, that's all. She's young, and just thinks her feelings are much bigger than they actually are. This kind of crushes will go over. She'll only learn from it."

"How do you know?" Elco asked. "Were you ever in love? I bet you have never had feelings like that."

"I loved my wife," Buck said, and he also didn't seem very happy anymore. "I loved her very much. And she left me, because she loved someone else. And I got over that. And I know Diana will get over this, too. She's not stupid, like you are."

The next moment, Elco punched Buck right in his face.

Buck took a step back, feeling if there was any blood. But there wasn't. He looked angrily at Elco who stood there with a triumphant smile on his face.

The first blood was for Buck. He hit Elco in the face with his fist, and blood appeared on the young weasel's lip. Elco growled and tried to hi back, but Buck dodged, grabbed Elco's wrist and threw him on the ground. Elco stood up as quick as he could, and tried to hit Buck again. Buck blocked the blow, and punched Elco in the stomach. Elco gasped for air and took a few steps back. But the pain only made his anger worse. He attacked Buck again, and this time he hit him, again in his face. Buck, however, almost didn't seem to notice his bleeding nose, and his fist met Elco's face again. Elco was thrown backwards.

"I don't think you want to play the game this way, mate," Buck said. "Just stop it."

Elco knew he couldn't win from a weasel who was stronger, bigger and older than he was. But he was just too angry to stop. He wasn't even sure anymore why he was angry.

He attacked Buck, and tried to punch him in his stomach, just like the hermit had done to him. Buck didn't even take the time to dodge. He just hit Elco right in his face again before the young weasel could hit him. Elco's nose started bleeding too.

"You know I'm stronger anyway," Buck said.

Yes, Elco knew. But he couldn't stop and let Buck see him as a weakling. He punched Buck between his ribs. This time Buck didn't dodge in time. He took a step back to gasp for air. Elco now saw he could take advantage of that, and his Buck in the face again.

Buck then hit Elco twice, using both his firsts. More blood filled Elco's mouth. He tried to do the same to Buck, but he was blocked and then received another kick in the stomach. H recovered soon and raised his fist again.

"Stop it!"

Both of them froze, and then slowly turned around to the person who had screamed.

Diana stood there.

Elco and Buck weren't sure if she was angry or if she was crying. Maybe both.

"Stop it, both of you!" She said.

Buck put his hands on his back and took a step away from Elco.

Elco decided to do the same.

"I really thought you were better than this," Diana said. "both of you. Do you even know what you are fighting over?"

"Um…" Buck said, and he looked at Elco, who thought for a while and then shrugged.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Diana said.

Buck shrugged. "Why?" he asked.

Diana made a very frustrated sound as she turned around and walked away.

"Men…" she said.

…

"That's what you get from challenging Buck," Liza said, giggling, while she was taking care of Elco's injuries.

He wasn't injured very badly. Just a little wound on his lip, a bleeding nose, some bruises and a black eye.

Buck said he didn't need anyone to look after his wounds. He was sitting as far away from Elco and Diana as he could and was busy with making a peg leg out of a piece of wood for Dorian.

Diana was still angry and didn't want to talk to Elco or Buck. Is was best to just leave her alone for a while, in Buck's opinion. And he was right.

Momma Dino had been a little angry with Buck because he left to go hunting, but she wasn't angry anymore now.

Blueclaw, Greyclaw and Longclaw had made a place to sleep at the bottom of the Lava Falls. Momma Dino's house was just a little too small for so many visitors. Especially since her other two children, Egbert and Yoko, were also there now.

"So Rudy is awake again?" Buck said to Momma Dino. "That's unusual."

Momma Dino nodded.

"We're all going to hove to keep a sharp eye," Buck said. "he's up to something…"


	24. Chapter 24 - Death of a friend

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 24 – Death of a friend.**

…

The last, desperate cry of a Stegosaurus was to be heard in the Underworld. Rudy's teeth sank deep into the flesh of his prey. The stegosaurus stopped moving. Rudy let go, and with his long, sharp claws he began ripping off pieces of meat from the Stegosaurus' belly. He then leaned forward to eat the meat. It was still warm.

Another piece of meat was ripped off the carcass.

It wasn't very tasty. Rudy had never liked Stegosaurus meat very much. But he had to eat something. His stomach was growling from hunger. He hadn't eaten in days, not even after he awakened and left his cave.

Why had he left? He didn't know. He just felt so restless.

It was all Hunter's fault, Rudy had decided. He couldn't stop thinking of the little creature. He had left Hunter for dead between the rocks… but was he indeed dead? He just didn't know. Maybe he was out now to find that out.

Rudy spat out something gross from the Stegosaurus' body. Must have been a piece of the animal's guts. Rudy hated that.

He had lost his apatite now. He left the half-eaten carcass behind and went to find a place to sleep.

He could spend weeks without eating. He should just wait until he had found something more… tasty.

…

"Are you sure you're feeling better?" Liza asked, as she followed Buck through the jungle.

"I feel perfectly fine, lass," Buck said, pushing aside some leaves. "Especially now that Momma Dino thinks I can go out and hunt again."

"Thanks for letting me come with you," Liza said. "I was pretty bored back there. And I just couldn't take any more of Elco's whining."

"Why do you think I left?" Buck said, chuckling.

Liza chuckled too. "Good point." She said.

Buck looked at her over his shoulder.

Liza didn't look very much like Diana. Her fur had a lighter color. Her hair was longer and her eyes smaller. She had small freckles on her cheeks. She was also taller and looked stronger and maybe even a little chubbier than Diana.

"So…" Buck said. "were you and Diana born at the same day?"

"Yes," Liza said. "But I was a little earlier. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason, love," Buck said, shrugging. "I was just curious."

"I now, Diana and I don't look very much alike," Liza said. "She's the pretty one, and I… well, I'm the other one."

Buck smiled. "For the record, I think you're quite pretty, too." He said.

Liza raised an eyebrow. "For real?" She asked.

Buck stopped walking and sat down at a log. "Yeah, why not?" he said. "you have nice… emmm… hair."

"I thought you thought Diana was the pretty one," Liza said.

"Yeah, Diana is pretty, I have to agree," Buck said. "But she's just a child…"

"Diana and I are the same age, genius," Liza said, giggling.

Buck shook his head. "Oh, right," he said. "I keep forgetting. You just look older and… bigger."

"You mean I'm fat," Liza said.

"You're not fat," Buck replied.

"Yes I am."

"You're just not as skinny as Diana."

"Which means I'm fat…"

"No, you just have… other… curves than Diana has."

"Buck, that's gross!"

They laughed as they continued walking.

Suddenly Liza stopped and sniffed the air.

"What is it?" Buck asked.

"Talking about gross," Liza said. "What is that terrible smell."

Buck sniffed, and smelled it too. It was the smell of a corpse that was starting to rot. And now that Buck listened more carefully, he heard the buzzing noise of a lot of flies.

"Some dead animal must be lying over there," Buck said. "let's have a look. Maybe we can remove it before the entire jungle gets poisoned by that smell."

They followed their nose, but soon they had to breathe through their mouths because the smell was just too terrible.

"Buck, look," Liza said, pointing at the ground.

Buck looked down, and saw that they were standing on a huge pawprint. A pawprint that the one-eyed weasel knew very well.

"Rudy," he said.

He pushed aside some plants, and there they saw the big, half-eaten carcass of a Stegosaurus.

It had been lying there fro one or two days. Flies were buzzing all around it, but especially at it's belly, where a lot of flesh had been ripped off. Liza was glad she couldn't see it very well because of those flies.

The smell was horrible. Liza became nauseous because of it, even though she was breathing through he mouth. She covered her nose with her hands. She felt like she was going to throw up. Or faint, maybe.

"Let's get out of here," Liza said. "I feel sick."

But Buck didn't answer.

Liza looked at him and saw that his expression was shocked. Not something usual for Buck, who had seen so many horrifying things in his life that he got used to it. He had seen worse than this, so why should he be shocked?

The Weasel had once traveled through the Underworld, holding one hand to his belly to make sure his guts didn't roll out of it. And then he was shocked by this.

The one-eyed weasel slowly walked over to the Setegosaurus' head and put his hand on the dinosaur's beak. A round, brown eye stared at him. Empty. Soulless.

Liza now finally noticed the dinosaur's tail. He had only a half tail. The other half must have been bitten off long before the dinosaur died.

There was only one dinosaur Liza knew who had a half tail.

She turned to Buck.

"Oh, Buck," she said. "I'm so sorry."

Buck shook his head as if he couldn't believe what he saw.

"Jasper." He whispered.

…

Rudy opened his eyes. He had slept longer than he had expected. But he didn't worry about that.

He could smell it. There was not other smell like this, Rudy knew that.

This was the oh so well known smell of his greatest enemy.

"Hunter." Rudy growled softly.


	25. Chapter 25 - a kiss and a danger

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 25 – A kiss and a danger.**

…

"Buck, I'm so sorry," Liza said again.

"He was my friend," Buck said. "He was pretty stupid… but he was still my friend."

They were sitting on a safe distance from Jasper's carcass, but they could still see it.

Liza put a hand on Buck's shoulder.

"It must be terrible to lose a friend," she said.

Buck only sighed.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Liza asked. She felt a little uncomfortable. She had never seen Buck this sad before. She felt like she should do something for him, but she didn't know what.

Buck shook his head.

"There's nothing you could possibly do about this," Buck said. He looked up to the sky. "Curse you, Grim Reaper…"

Liza almost laughed at that, but didn't do it. She didn't want to hurt Buck more.

"Did I ever tell you how I met Jasper?" Buck asked Liza.

Now Liza did have to laugh a little. "Yes," she said. "you saved him from a tyrannosaurus using a clam shell. And you…. As you said it: 'Turned the T-rex into a T-rachel'."

She giggled, and even Buck had to laugh a little. But then he sighed again.

"The poor fellow probably didn't know what was happening to him." He said. "Maybe he didn't even realize Rudy was dangerous until it was too late. I always said that he wasn't very intelligent."

"Yeah," Liza said, and now she suddenly felt her eyes burning.

Buck now finally looked at her. "Are you crying?" he asked.

Liza quickly wiped off her tears. "No." She said.

"Yes you are," Buck said. "I saw it."

"Well, you're crying too." Liza said.

"No I'm not," Buck said.

They were silent for a while.

Liza stared at Jasper's body.

"Do you think we should burry him?" She said.

"How on earth are we going to burry that?" Buck replied. "It's huge. It would take ages. And Rudy is walking around here somewhere."

"Then… why are we still here?" Liza asked.

Buck shrugged. "I don't know."

He was about to say something funny, but didn't really feel like it. There was nothing funny about this situation. It was everything but funny. One of his friends just died.

He didn't feel like staying there, but he also didn't feel like going away.

He looked at Liza, who was still sitting next to him. She looked back at him with one eyebrow braised. "What?" She said.

Suddenly he just couldn't stop himself. He put his arms around her waist and kissed her.

Liza didn't know what to think.

Why was she letting him do that? Diana loved Buck, and Liza couldn't be the one who was standing in her way. She couldn't do that to her own sister, could she?

On the other hand…

Diana had always been the pretty one of the family. She could have any guy in the world if she wanted. And nobody had ever even looked at Liza. She wasn't such a pretty, innocent little thing as Diana was. Everyone was attracted to Diana, and nobody was ever attracted to 'ugly little Liza'.

She had to admit, she liked this attention….

But no, she couldn't break Diana's heart.

Liza pushed Buck away. "What are you doing?" She asked.

Buck suddenly blushed. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said. "I just keep forgetting that you're… well, too young for me…"

Liza bit her lip and thought for a while.

"We should never tell anyone about this," she said then.

Buck nodded. "I agree."

"Please don't tell Diana, Buck," Liza said. "She would be heartbroken."

"I won't," Buck said. "Don't worry, love. I won't tell anyone, especially not Diana. I swear."

Liza sighed. "Thanks, Buck."

Buck looked at Jasper's body one last time.

"Shall we go back?" He said.

"Yes, good idea," Liza said, while standing up.

They walked away as fast as they could, avoiding each other's gaze.

…

Blueclaw sniffed the air.

"What is it, Blueclaw?" Momma Dino asked, looking up from her meal.

"I can smell him," Blueclaw said nervously. "Whiteclaw. He's here."

Momma Dino stood up. "Buck and the light female are out there," she said. "we must warn them."

"and the dark female? Where is she?" Blueclaw asked.

He had seen the old peg-legged weasel and his wife in Momma Dino's home, together with the annoying young male. They were still there.

The Compsognathus and the Junior Dinohunter had just returned. But Blueclaw hadn't seen the dark young female.

"She must be in the jungle too," Momma Dino said. "We have to find them now!"

She left the half-eaten Triceratops behind and walked into the jungle together with the old Spinosaurus. They hadn't walked for very long when they saw Buck and the light female.

"Buck," Momma Dino said. "There you are. Rudy is here."

The Dinohunter spoke back to her in Mammal language, and Momma Dino had to translate his words to Blueclaw.

"We know," Buck said. "he killed Jasper."

"You mean the Stegosaurus with the half tail?" Momma Dino said. "When?"

"Yesterday, maybe the day before that," Buck said. "we just found his carcass…"

"The young dark female, is she with you?" Momma Dino asked.

"Diana?" Buck said. "wasn't she at your house?"

"She isn't there now," Momma said.

Buck rolled his eyes. "I really don't have time for this."

He put his knife on his shoulder and started walking.

"Where are you going?" the light female asked him.

"To find your little sister, Liza," buck answered. "Before Rudy does. Please go back to Momma's house and stay with your family. And make sure Sheldon doesn't come after me. He tends to do that, you know."

…

Diana looked around.

She had just gone walking for a little while, and now she was suddenly lost.

Why did all the trees, stones and flowers look so much alike? And how could they be so different at the same time? It just wasn't fair. Elco, Liza, Dorian and Anna had traveled trough the Dino World for weeks, and now she got lost after only a few minutes.

Where in the world could she be? And why did this always have to happen to her?

Actually she wanted to go and walk with Buck today. She wanted to tell him she wasn't angry at him anymore. But then he had already gone into the jungle. Together with Liza.

Diana had to admit she was a little jealous. Of course, there was nothing between Liza and Buck. Buck had said so himself: he wasn't interested in children. Since he said Diana was practically still a child, and Diana and Liza were the same age, he sure wasn;t interested in Liza. But still….

Diana suddenly stopped. She smelled something.

It was a nasty smell. The smell of rotting corpses. She had only smelled that one time before in this world.

She froze.

There was a soft, warm breeze. But, Diana realized it wasn't a breeze. It was breath.

She slowly looked behind her to see two huge, red eyes staring at her from the darkness.


	26. Chapter 26 - The rescue party

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 26 – The rescue party.**

…

"But he can't go alone," Anna said. "he is only just healed from his illness and his wounds. He's not strong enough yet."

"Madam, don't underestimate Buck like that," Compso said. "I'm sure he'll be fine. He survived all attacks from Rudy till now, and I'm sure he's going to survive the next one."

"Well said, Compso," Sheldon said.

To be honest, Sheldon did feel a little jealous. Buck was out on adventures again, and the little weasel had to stay home and wait. He was trained as a Dinohunter, wasn't he? So why shouldn't he help Buck?

All he had to do was get away from Momma's house without being seen. That wasn't going to be easy, but he had escaped from his home too, which also wasn't so easy. His mother always seemed to see and know everything. But he had escaped anyway so that he could go back to the Underworld.

He had the right t help Buck, he decided. And if they wouldn't let him do it, he would do it without their permission.

Sheldon waited until Momma, Compso and the weasel family were in a discussion about something, and then he silently walked away, without being seen. He had his slingshot in his hand.

Elco, who wasn't paying attention to the conversation very much, looked around, and he saw Sheldon walk into the jungle.

He rolled his eyes, stood up and followed the boy.

"Where are you going, Elco?" Liza asked.

"Nowhere," Elco said. "Just looking around. I won't be far."

…

Pawprints. And they were very fresh. Buck knew there were no other pawprints like this. Rudy had been here.

And Diana, the thought as the examined the small paw prints. Apparently they finally met each other. There was no blood, but Diana's pawprints suddenly stopped.

Rudy had either eaten he whole, without chewing, or he took her with him to enjoy his meal somewhere in peace. Buck hoped it was the second thing, because then there was still hope for Diana. He started following the pawprints. They were easy to find, because they were huge. Rudy destroyed everything in his path. Buck couldn't help but laugh when he saw a bird who had been 'roadkilled'. Rudy just stepped on the poor thing, and the bird was completely flat.

"Not your lucky day, is it?" Buck said to the dead bird.

We continued walking. But now he suddenly got the feeling someone was following him.

He eventually stopped, and sighed.

"Okay, Sheldon," he said. "I know you're there. You can stop hiding."

The little weasel came out of the bushes next to Buck.

"How did you know it was me?" He asked.

"Who else could it be?" Buck asked. "Can't you ever just stay put?"

"No," Sheldon said. "I'm like you, remember?"

Buck laughed. He picked the young weasel up and put him on his shoulders.

"Well, you're here and there's nothing to be done about that anymore," Buck said. "Come on. Let's go find Diana."

"You're not angry?" Sheldon asked as Buck continued walking.

"Why should I be?" Buck asked.

"Because I disobeyed you," Sheldon said.

"You're right, Sheldon," Buck said. "You're just like me when I was your age. I never listened to anyone either. You're like a copy of myself, you know."

"Buck, sometimes I wish that you were my dad," Sheldon said.

"Well, that's quite impossible, I'm afraid," Buck said. "I don't think I've ever been close enough to you mother for that. What was her name again?"

"Seetha," Sheldon said.

"Hm, funny name," Buck said.

He suddenly stopped and rolled his eye in annoyance.

"Seriously," he said. "is this a family reunion? Why does everyone follow me when I tell you to stay out?"

"We're not family," someone said.

Elco stepped on the path Buck was standing on.

"And I didn't follow you," he added. "I followed Sheldon."

"Well, congratulations," Buck said, and Elco assumed it was meant sarcastically.

Elco watched the weasels as he continued walking, with Sheldon still on his shoulders. What exactly was he doing here, Elco wondered. Why had he followed Sheldon exactly?

"Why are you taking Sheldon with you?" Elco asked finally, as he began to walk after Buck.

"Because it's impossible to make him stay put anyway," Buck said. "and as long as I'm here, there's not much to worry about. I think."

"So, where do you think Diana is?" Elco asked.

"With Rudy," Buck said. "either in his stomach or not yet in his stomach, but very soon."

Elco stopped. "What?!" he said loudly.

Buck stopped too and looked at the young weasel.

"Rudy has Diana, and you're not even trying to hurry up!" Elco said. "What's wrong with you? Are you crazy?"

"We all know that by now," Buck said. "Now if you're going to come with us, you're going to have to do anything I tell you. And the first time I will tell you, is to shut up."

"I'm not taking orders from you." Elco said.

"Then enjoy the waiting for my return," Buck said, and he started walking again. "bye, mate."

"Wait," Elco said, when Buck had only walked a few steps. "I'm coming."

"Welcome to our unit, lad," Buck said, as he patted Elco on the shoulder.

"Don't touch me," Elco growled at him. "I'm only coming because I want to save Diana. I still hate you."

"Fine with me," Buck said. "and now: shut up."

…

Rudy wouldn't have expected her to be this annoying.

Ever since he had found the female weasel and took her with him, she had been screaming her lungs out, crying, running from side to side, trying to escape. It really annoyed Rudy, and he wish he could eat her now.

This female was the same species as Hunter. She might even be his mate, Rudy thought. So if Hunter were still alive, he would come and look for Female.

He hoped Hunter would come soon, because Rudy couldn't take much more of Female's screaming and crying. She would just never shut up.

"Can't you be silent just for a minute?" Rudy asked Female.

She didn't understand him, of course. She couldn't understand the dinosaur-language. And Rudy couldn't speak her language either.

Understanding it was a different matter. He could not understand all mammals, but strangely enough he had always been able to understand Hunter, at least a little. He never knew exactly what Hunter said, but he could still know what he meant. Maybe it wasn't so much the words, as the look in Hunter's blue eye, and the tone in his voice.

And he knew Hunter could understand him too. He could speak with many dinosaurs in the Underworld, like the mother-tyrannosaurus and that annoying little compsognathus.

Female started crying for help. At least Rudy thought she did. She was probably calling Hunter, using his mammal-name, which Rudy couldn't pronounce.

"Stop it!" Rudy snarled at her.

Female looked at him with fear in her big, brown eyes.

"Yeah, go ahead and fear me," Rudy said. "it's the only feeling everyone has for me: fear. Except for Hunter. Hunter doesn't fear me. Not at all."

Female couldn't understand his words anyway. But at least she was silent now.


	27. Chapter 27 - Rudy's Story

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 27 – Rudy's story.**

…

"Did you hear that?"

Elco had suddenly stopped walking, and listened carefully.

Buck stopped and turned around. "What?" He asked.

"I don't know," Elco said. "I thought I heard something."

Buck put Sheldon on the ground, and stood next to Elco. "What did it sound like?" He asked. "A voice?"

"I'm not sure." Elco said.

There was a soft sound, far in the distance.

Buck's ears moved slightly.

"Aye, definitely a voice," he said. "It's Diana."

Elco felt his heart jump. If that voice belonged to Diana, it meant she was still alive. But… for how long?

Buck put his fingers in his mouth and whistled.

"What are you doing?" Elco asked.

"Calling Roger," Buck said. "We know Diana is alive. Now we have to move fast. And there's not way faster than Roger's way."

"Who the heck is Roger?" Elco asked.

"He is." Sheldon simply said, and he pointed at the sky.

Elco gave out a shriek as he saw the big Pterosaurus falling down from the sky. Roger landed on his short back legs, right in front of Buck. The one-eyed weasel immediately jumped on his back, and helped Sheldon up too.

Elco just stood there, saying absolutely nothing.

"Well, are you coming?" Buck asked. "or did there grow roots from your feet and are you slowly turning into a tree?"

"You want me to get on that thing?" Elco said. "I'm not crazy!"

Buck rolled his eye. "No, you're not," he said. "which is a shame because if you were, you would probably be a lot less-boring."

"What if you let me be thrown off?" Elco said. "I'll be killed!"

"I won't," Buck said. "Now hurry."

"How do I know if you're telling the truth?" Elco asked.

Buck growled. "You're just gonna have to trust me!" He said angrily. He held out his hand. "Come on!"

Elco hesitated. But then he decided and let Buck help him to climb on Roger's back.

"Brace yourself," Buck said to the others. And then Roger spread his wings and flew away.

Elco gave out a scream when he looked down, and saw the ground many, many feet below him.

"What is it, mate?" Buck asked. "afraid of heights?" And he let Roger do a somersault in the air.

"You are insane!" Elco said. "I almost fell off!"

"No you didn't," Buck said with a grin. "you're just being the complainer again. Do you want to rescue Diana?"

"Of course I do." Elco said.

"Then you're going to have to do it my way," Buck said. "because I'm in charge here, you old sorehead."

"I'm not old," Elco muttered to himself. "he's older than I am."

"You remember rule number one, right?" Buck asked the young weasel.

Elco sighed. " 'Always listen to Buck'," he said, rolling his eyes.

"And don't you forget that," Buck said, and he let Roger do another somersault, a backwards one.

…

Greyclaw woke up. He opened his eyes and looked at whatever was blocking his sun.

It was Longclaw.

"What is it, Longclaw?" he asked.

"Have you seen Blueclaw?" Longclaw asked. "I went fishing, and when I came back he was gone."

Greyclaw looked at the spot where Blueclaw had been when he fell asleep. But the spot was empty now. The old Spinosaurus was gone.

"Oh dear," Greyclaw said. "Another person disappeared. Why does this keep happening?"

"Because you're an idiot," Longclaw said. "you were supposed to keep an eye on Blueclaw, remember? And you fell asleep, and now he's gone."

"I'm sorry…" Greyclaw.

"You are a failure," Longclaw said.

Greyclaw sighed. "I know." He said. "I'll… go look for Blueclaw, okay?"

"Oh no you don't," Longclaw said. "You stay here in case he comes back. I'll look for Blueclaw in the jungle."

"But can you do that all alone?" Greyclaw asked.

Longclaw growled softly. "Others might think you are the though one of us two," she said. "but you and I both know I am."

"That's true," Greyclaw said. And he had to admit: he admired her strength. He had always admired her, in every way. She was smart, strong, and she was pretty. In I dinosaur-way, that is.

"Okay," Longclaw said. "If Blueclaw comes back, roar for me. The I'll come back."

"Understood," Greyclaw said, and he watched Longclaw walk off into the jungle.

"Be safe," he said.

…

Roger landed next to the cave. The three weasels jumped off his back, and Buck and Sheldon thanked him.

Then they went to examine the cave.

It was very big, and went very deep into the mountain. It was big enough for an entire family of Baryonyxes.

"I know this cave," Buck said. "It's where Rudy's family used to live."

"He has a family?" Elco asked.

"Not anymore," Buck said. "I can tell you what happened, if you want."

"What about Diana?" Elco asked.

Buck sniffed the air. "I don't smell blood," he said. "She's okay. And if Rudy would have eaten her, he would have gone back to his cave next to the river. I know his habits."

"Okay," Elco said. "Tell the story. But quickly."

Buck sat down on a rock. "Rudy was born from a nest with six eggs." He said. "All were normal Baryonyx-babies. Except for Rudy: he was completely white. That's why he was always the last one to get food, the only one who wasn't allowed to sleep in the nest. When he became older, his mother just threw him out. He was growing much too fast, and she didn't want to find more food for him. He had to take care of himself, or die in the wild. But Rudy survived. He grew to like meat more than fish, very unlike other Baryonyxes. When he was fully grown, he was bigger than any Baryonyx that ever lived. He was even bigger than any Spinosaurus. Some dinosaurs started calling him 'The White Giant'. And as soon as Rudy was fully grown, he went back to this cave, where his family still lived. He killed them all, and ate them."

Elco shuddered. "He ate his mother and siblings?"

"Not completely," Buck said. "His stomach isn't that big. But he ate at least a few bites from all of them. The rest he left here to rot. You can still smell the scent of their bodies sometimes."

"What did Rudy do with the bones?" Sheldon asked.

Buck was silent for a while. Then he simply said: "You'll find out." And he stood up.

"Let's go," he said.

He seemed slightly upset. Maybe it was the story about Rudy.

Elco suddenly felt the tendency to ask him what's wrong. He cleared his throat. "Is… is something the matter?" he asked.

"No, it's just…" Buck sighed. "My family didn't love me either." He began walking into the cave.

Elco and Sheldon followed him.

"Why not?" Elco asked.

"I look like my father," Buck simply said.

"What does that have to do with it?" Elco asked.

"Everything," Buck said. "My father left my mother right before I was born. He didn't really want children, and he certainly didn't want a woman of his own age as a mate. He was only after young, pretty females. And my mother wasn't like that anymore. Especially not after having three children, and with another one coming soon. So he left."

"And your three siblings?" Elco asked.

"My mother had already learned to love them before my father left," Buck said. "Also, they looked more like her. I was the only one with my father's eyes."

"Oh," Elco said. He hesitated. "I… I'm sorry."

"Don't fuss," Buck said. "I've got used to it. And I left my family anyway. Only I'm not planning to ever come back, like Rudy did. And if I do come back, I won't kill them."

"Of course you won't," Sheldon said. "You are a good guy. And Rudy is a bad guy."

Buck smiled at the little weasel.

"What was your father's name?" Elco asked.

"Jacob." Buck said.

"Hm." Was the only thing Elco answered.

Buck now stopped and sniffed.

"We're getting close." He said.

Elco smelled it too: the smell of rotting corpses. The smell that Rudy carried with him at all times.

And they heard his slow, hoarse breathing.


	28. Chapter 28 - Rudy's bone bed

**The Underworld .**

**Chapter 28 – Rudy's bone bed.**

…

Elco's jaw dropped, and he couldn't help it.

They had arrived in a huge room in the cave. It was big enough for three Rudy's to fit in.

But there was only one Rudy. He was lying on a nest, made of bones. It were dinosaur bones, and very big ones.

Elco shuddered as he realized that this was what Rudy has done with the bones of his family: he made his bed out of it.

Next to the bone-nest sat Diana. When Buck, Elco and Sheldon came in, she looked up. A smile appeared on her face, and she cried out: "Buck!".

She ran towards the one-eyed weasel. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheeks.

"I knew you would come!" she said. "I knew you wouldn't leave me."

Buck tried his best to push her away, but she wouldn't let go of him. She was just too happy to see him.

"Can't you save this for later?" Buck asked.

In the meantime, Rudy had opened his red eyes and looked at the weasels. Slowly he got on his feet, and a soft growling sound came from his throat. He stared straight at Buck.

Buck finally freed himself of Diana's embrace, and looked back at his enemy.

Sheldon, Elco and Diana all took a step back, as Buck took his knife in his hand and slowly started to grin.

"Hello, Rudy." Buck said.

…

"Hello, Hunter," Rudy growled at the weasel in front of him.

He knew Hunter would come to rescue Female. He hadn't come alone, but that didn't matter. The young weasel didn't seem very though, and the child wasn't dangerous either. Rudy knew Little Hunter, of course. He had seen him before. Little Hunter looked a lot like Hunter, but he wasn't that strong. Hunter was an enemy that could not be replaced, Rudy knew that. Nobody could match him.

Hunter began talking. Even though Rudy couldn't understand the mammal language, he knew exactly what Hunter was saying.

"I know you kidnapped the girl to get me here," Hunter said. "So what do you want? Do you want a fight? You know I will win."

"How comes you are so sure?" Rudy gowled.

"I have no idea what you are saying," Hunter said.

Rudy rolled his blood-red eyes. It was so annoying that he could understand Hunter, but Hunter didn't really seem to understand him. It was frustrating, because he could never actually tell Hunter anything. Not about how annoying he thought Hunter was, not about how he was getting tired of their little game. Nothing.

Hunter looked around, and then back at Rudy again.

"If we're going to fight, let's go outside," he said.

Rudy nodded, and this was something Hunter could understand.

The one-eyed weasel put his knife on his shoulder, and said to Female, Little Hunter and the young male weasel: "Get out of here when you get the chance."

With that, he left the cave.

Rudy didn't mind if the other three weasels left. His only concern was Hunter. He was the dangerous one. The only one who could defeat him, the biggest dinosaur in the entire Underworld.

Rudy had to admit: it was remarkable that this little creature was so powerful. But he would not feel sympathy for his greatest enemy. And also, he knew Hunter was completely insane.

The sun was starting to set in the World of Above. The light in the Underworld was starting to become red. It was almost as if the rocks were covered in blood. A silence had fallen around the cave. There were no birds, no other dinosaurs, not even any insects. But that didn't last long, because suddenly there was the sound of grasshoppers chirping in the grass.

This all gave Elco the creeps. The red light, the sound of the grasshoppers, and the huge dinosaur and the weasel standing there face to face.

"We have to go," Elco said.

"But what about Buck," Diana asked.

"He said we had to get out of here when we got the chance," Elco said. "and we have the chance now."

"But…" Diana protested.

Elco sighed. He hated it, but he had to say it. "Remember rule number one?" He asked, trying to not let his disgust be heard in his voice.

Diana and Sheldon gave each other a look.

"Always listen to Buck," Sheldon said.

"Right," Elco said. "Now, come on."

He looked for Roger, but the pterosaurus had disappeared.

Buck and Rudy started to slowly walk around each other, never letting each other's eyes go. Rudy's red eyes seemed to glow. And even more with the red light from the World of Above.

The reflection in Buck's knife made it look as if it was covered with blood. Just like it had been many weeks ago, after Buck and Rudy's previous, horrible battle.

Buck had not forgotten about that. And he never would.

"I will get you this time, Hunter," Rudy gowled.

And now, Hunter seemed to understand him.

"You wish." He said.

They attacked each other at exactly the same moment.

Rudy's jaws snapped at Buck, but the weasel jumped on Rudy's head, trying to tie a vine around his snout. Rudy threw him off and tried to step on him, but Buck kept getting away, yelling, "Pop goes the weasel!", the whole time.

Then Rudy hit him with his claw. This time he didn't miss. Buck was hit in the stomach and thrown against a tree. He immediately grabbed his stomach with both arms, growling. There was blood on the ground.

At that moment, Sheldon stopped running before he went into the jungle like Diana and Elco. He looks over his shoulder, and saw what happened to Buck.

He looked back at Diana and Elco, who didn't notice that he wasn't following them. Then, the little weasel looked at Buck and Rudy again.

"Who says I'm too young to hunt dino's." Sheldon said. He grabbed his slingshot and shot a stone at Rudy's head.

Rudy turned around with a growl. He saw Sheldon, and came towards him.

Buck saw his chance, grabbed the vine and swung it around like a lasso. He caught Rudy's feet, and the dinosaur fell.

Buck ran over to Sheldon and grabbed his shoulders.

"You idiot!" he said. "I told you to get away, and you stayed. Are you crazy?!"

Sheldon just smiled. "I guess now I look even more like you." He said.

Buck suddenly laughed and patted Sheldon on the head. "Lad, you could really be my son," Buck said. "but that's not possible."

At that moment, Rudy was finally able to cut the vine around his legs with one of his sharp claws. He stood up and tried to hit the two weasels with his tale. But they dodged.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Sheldon asked, pointing at Buck's wound.

"Yes, but I don't care," Buck said. He ignored the blood that came out of the wound, and hit Rudy, using a long vine as a whip.

Rudy growled and wanted to attack Buck. But then he changed his mind and turned towards Sheldon.

Buck gasped.

"Sheldon, look out!"

Sheldon dodged a blow from Rudy. But he wasn't prepared for a second one. He was hit and thrown against some rocks. There he lied still.

"No…" Buck said. Without paying any attention to Rudy, he ran to Sheldon. He kneeled next to his little friend and checked his pulse. But his hands were shaking, and he wasn't sure if there was a heartbeat.

Sheldon had blood on his chest and his head. The wound on his chest was from Rudy, the one on his head came from the sharp rocks. His eyes were closed.

"Sheldon," Buck said. "Sheldon, look at me, buddy. Say something."

But Sheldon didn't move.

Rudy grinned. This was exactly what he was hoping for. Hunter was distracted, and so now it was time for him to take his chance.

He walked towards Hunter, and slowly raised his claw. In a few seconds all his trouble would be over. He would finally be free from this annoying little creature.

And then, he hesitated.

He didn't know what it was, but he suddenly thought of all the battles he had had with Buck. It had been more than seventeen years. And all those years, Rudy had felt like he had a purpose in life. What if Hunter was this purpose? What could he do without having to hunt Hunter? Where would he go?

He shook his head. There was no time for this. Hunter had hurt him. He had scarred him for life. And Rudy had sworn to himself that anyone who hurt him, would be killed and eaten. He couldn't break his own oath, could he?

He raised his claw again. Hunter still didn't notice him. He hugged Little Hunter tightly, maybe hoping to keep him warm and with that, alive.

Rudy took a deep breath. He raised his claw higher, ready to strike.

Buck slowly turned around and looked at the white dinosaur. He didn't look afraid. He was never afraid, especially not of Rudy. And he was never afraid to die.

He didn't move, because he knew that now, there was no way out.

The weasel and the dinosaur looked straight at each other. And finally, Rudy charged.

His claw never hit Buck. Because at that moment, a Spinosaurus with grey-blueish claws jumped out of the jungle and pushed Rudy aside, his many sharp teeth sinking into the whit dinosaur's flesh.


	29. Chapter 29 - Blueclaw's sacrifice

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 29 – Blueclaw's sacrifice. **

…

Rudy fell on the ground and looked up at the one that had attacked him.

"You," he growled. "You are that pitiful little leader of the spinosaurs that I chased away from my home."

"Correction, Whiteclaw," Blueclaw said. "it is our home. It's the home of the Spinosaurs, and not of you. This cave here, this is your home."

"Not anymore," Rudy said.

"Yes, it still is," Blueclaw said. "just because you got bored and left, doesn't meant this isn't the place where you belong."

"Shut up, old fool!" Rudy said.

He jumped at Blueclaw's throat. His jaws snapped.

Buck tried to interfere, but it was too late. Rudy's teeth sank deep into Blueclaw's throat. The old dinosaur gave out a roar.

"Oh, no," Buck said, grabbing his knife. "Nobody is going to die today. Not as long as I live."

He ran, jumped, grabbed a vine and swung around the dinosaurs, until he landed on Rudy's head. He tried cutting the white dinosaur, but it made no difference.

Rudy let go of Blueclaw. The old Spinosaurus felt on the ground, while rivers of blood came from the wound in his neck. The ground was covered in it.

Rudy shook his head, trying to shake Buck off. But Buck wouldn't let go. He saw his chance to grab some red berries from a tree.

"Sleep well, Rudy," he said, and he threw the berries on Rudy's large snaut. They exploded, and some strange blue gas came from it. Buck jumped off Rudy's head and immediately ran back to Sheldon.

Rudy's sight began to blur. He felt dizzy.

He growled. "Curse you, Hunter," he said, right before he fell on the ground. He was immediately asleep.

Buck didn't pay attention to Rudy. He was still trying to make Sheldon wake up.

"Come on, Sheldon," he said. "you're not dead, I know it! Wake up, please."

"Dinohunter," Blueclaw whispered.

Buck looked over his shoulder. "You're alive?" he asked.

Blueclaw didn't understand what he was saying. But he continued: "You must breathe the warmth into him. Let me help you."

Buck picked up Sheldon, and put him down right in front of Blueclaw's mouth. The slow, warm breath of the old dinosaur reached Sheldon's cold body. And after some long, painfully silent minutes, Sheldon's eyes suddenly opened.

"What happened?" he asked weakly.

Buck couldn't even speak, he was so much relieved. He just hugged his little friend tightly. Then he looked at Blueclaw. "I didn't know that was possible." He said.

Blueclaw didn't understand that. But he just smiled.

At that moment, another dinosaur came out of the jungle. It was Longclaw.

She took one look at the situation, and immediately ran towards Rudy, her claws and teeth ready to rip him to shreds.

But Buck jumped right in front of her.

"Stop!" he said.

"What are you doing, Dinohunter?" Longclaw asked.

"I understand you're angry," Buck said. "but touch Rudy, and I will kill you."

"I don't understand your language, Dinohunter," Longclaw said.

"Listen!" Buck said, and now he was screaming. "My life is pointless without Rudy. All that I want in my life is adventure and danger. Kill Rudy, and you will take away my reason to live. I live for adventure, don't you understand?"

Longclaw looked at Buck for a very long time. And even though she did not understand his words, she understood his meanings.

"I am sorry, Dinohunter," Longclaw said.

She now turned to Blueclaw.

"Are you alright, master?" Longclaw asked.

"I'm dying, we both know that," Blueclaw said. "But, Longclaw, I want you to say to Greyclaw that I name him the new leader of our group."

"Greyclaw?" Longclaw said. "But, why?"

"Greyclaw has the right qualities." Blueclaw said. "he's a strong, young dinosaur. He still has much to learn, but I know he can do it. And you, Longclaw, will be his advisor. Please be sure you take care of him."

"I will, Blueclaw." Longclaw said.

Blueclaw's eyes slowly closed, and after some time, the blood slowly stopped flowing. His hear had stopped.

Longclaw let out a loud roar. A message to everyone that the leader of the Spinosaurs was dead.

They stayed by Blueclaw's side for a while, saying nothing. Then Longclaw let Buck and Sheldon climb on her back, and she slowly started walking back to Momma Dino's home.

…

When they finally arrived, there was no time for sadness anymore. Everyone cheered when the heroes of the day entered Momma's home.

Buck and Sheldon jumped off Longclaw's back. They were hugged by everyone, except Elco who decided to take a little distance from them.

Diana almost cried of happiness when she saw Buck and Sheldon were okay. She immediately hugged Buck and didn't let him go for quite a while.

Dorian, who had somehow felt a deep respect for Buck even since he lost his leg to the velociraptors, shook Buck's hand and assured him that he never doubted him. And that was the truth.

Dorian had to say, he was very thankful to Buck because he made his peg leg. Dorian learned to walk on it quite fast.

Even Anna hugged Buck, and after that Sheldon.

Buck even felt so relieved to be with his friends again that he kissed both Diana and Liza on their cheeks.

Longclaw took the advantage to go away unseen. She didn't want to spoil their happiness with her presence, and also she had to talk to Greyclaw. He was leader now, after all, and he should also know about that.

She disappeared in silence.

Momma caught something to eat, and Buck, Sheldon and Compso made a big fire.

They ate, talked and laughed. Even Elco seemed in a better mood, and he didn't even notice he was eating triceratops-meat again.

But after dinner, Buck told everyone about Blueclaw.

They were silent for a long time. But after that, they decided that Blueclaw would have wanted them to go on with their lives and have fun.

It was very late when they finally went to sleep.

But when Diana woke up in the middle of the night, she saw Buck standing a few feet away from the camp. He was leaning on his knife, and stared in the distance. There was a roar, and Buck's ears moved.

Rudy had gone back to sleep. And it appeared as if he had decided to stay in the cave with the bone bed.

Then, Buck turned around and looked straight at Diana. She could see his eye very clearly, even though it was dark. And when she saw the look in his eye, she knew that tomorrow, it was time for them to go.


	30. Chapter 30 - Farewell to Buck

**The Underworld.**

**Chapter 30 – Farewell to Buck.**

…

"There are Greyclaw and Longclaw," one of the spinosaurs said.

The whole group ran towards the young dinosaurs.

"Where is Blueclaw?" A half-grown Spinosaurus called Shortclaw asked.

Greyclaw sighed. "He died," he said. "He was killed by Whiteclaw."

There was a short silence. A child-spinosaur started crying, and his mother took him away so that the adult dinosaurs could talk.

"And who did he choose as new leader?" Shortclaw asked.

"Me," Greyclaw said. "If you disagree with his decision, I will take your challenge. From all of you."

But nobody challenged him.

"If was Blueclaw's wish," one of the spinosaurs said. "and it was a wise choice. I'm sure you will be a great leader, Greyclaw."

"Thank you," he said. "and I have good news too. Whiteclaw has gone back to his bone bed. The river is ours again."

And this time, everyone cheered.

"We'll go immediately." Greyclaw added.

As all the spinosaurs started gathering the entire group, Longclaw smiled ad Greyclaw.

"They're right," she said. "you will be a great leader."

…

"Alright, mammals," Buck said. "It's done."

"That's quick," Dorian said. "If I ever come back here, you should teach me."

"Why would you want to learn how to make a bridge?" Buck asked.

Dorian shrugged. "That's a point." He said.

The weasel family had been waiting under a tree while Buck, Compso and Sheldon were making a new bridge for over the chasm that separated the Underworld from the exit. Dorian would have liked to help, but with his peg leg he would probably only stand in their way.

They walked to the chasm and the new bridge, which was made of vines, bones and wood. It looked safer than the last one.

"Then I guess this is goodbye," Dorian said.

"I don't wanna go," Sheldon said, wiping a tear away. "I wanna stay here with you, Buck."

"Hey, you can always come and visit me," Buck said, and he picked Sheldon up. "maybe one day, you can be the one that replaces me."

"What do you mean?" Sheldon asked.

"Well, if I'm old and grey and all," Buck said. "you can hunt dinos instead of me."

Sheldon giggled a bit.

"And you mother isn't exactly a sweetie, from what I have heard," Buck said. "If you don't mind, I'd like to keep my only eye. You get what I mean?"

Sheldon nodded and hugged Buck. "I'll come back soon," he said.

"I'm sure you will," Buck said with a smile.

He put Sheldon down and turned to the weasel family. "Well, folks," Buck said. "It was a pleasure knowing you."

Diana stepped forward.

"Can't I…" she started.

Buck cut her off. "No, Diana," he said. "Go back to your world, and find yourself a good boyfriend up there, okay?"

Diana smiled. "Okay, Buck," she said.

She looked into his eye, and finally it happened. She understood him.

Buck was an adventurer. That was where his heart was and always would be. Nobody in the world could change him.

Diana took one more step forward and kissed Buck on his cheek. That was all. No tears, no fighting, and no broken hearts.

"I do still feel sorry for you," Diana said then. "you know: that your wife left you for someone else."

"Yeah, it was sad," Buck said. "But that's what you get when you marry a pineapple. They can't be trusted." Then he looked around, surprised. "What are you all facepalming for?" he asked.

Liza was the first one to giggle about it. She pointed at Buck. "That guy will never change." She said.

"You bet I don't," Buck said.

Liza hugged Buck. "Thanks for being my friend," she said. "and goodbye."

"Bye, love," Buck said. He almost wanted to kiss her again, but decided against it just in time.

Dorian shook Buck's hand. "Goodbye, Buck," he said. "and thanks for the peg leg."

Buck patted his shoulder. "No worries, mate," he said. "I hope you at least now understand what it feels like to lose something in a fight."

"I most certainly do," Dorian said.

Now Elco stepped forward. He cleared his throat.

"I still don't like you," he said to Buck. "but you saved our lives, and I… and thankfull for that." He sounded as if he found it very difficult to say that.

"Well, look who grew up," Buck said.

They all said goodbye to Compso, too. And then they all climbed to the narrow tunnel that gave access to the World of Above.

Diana looked over her shoulder one more time.

She saw Buck and Compso walking away. They didn't look back.

And why should they? The Underworld was where they belonged. As Diana watched them walk away, she saw how perfectly they fitted in this world. They were part of it.

Why hadn't she seen this earlier? Now that she understood, it all seemed so much simpler.

She knew that she had learned some new lessons in life.

Love is more than wanting to possess each other.

Love is not always answered.

And your first crush isn't always your one true love.

Diana smiled when she felt the cold wind of the Ice Age in her face.


	31. Epilogue - Sheldon's mother

**The Underworld.**

**Epilogue - Sheldon's mother.**

…

"We're here!" Sheldon said. "It's my home."

"Finally," Elco complained. "I can't walk one more step."

"Oh, don't be a wiener," Liza said. "Dad has a peg leg, and he can walk perfectly."

"I think that old man has been around Buck for too long," Elco said. "he's starting to act like him."

"No, dad just got his life spirit back," Liza said. "thanks to our adventures."

"I'll be glad when I'm home," Elco said. "Why did we follow that boy to his home anyway?"

"Would you let that little kid travel alone?" Anna asked him.

Elco didn't answer, but only muttered something to himself.

Sheldon ran towards the hollow between two hills where his family lived.

"Mom! Dina! Dora! I'm home!" he yelled happily.

Two little weasel girls from Sheldon's age appeared from behind a rock. They looked exactly alike. They both had a doll in their arms. It immediately was clear that Sheldon's sisters Dina and Dora did not look like him at all. Their fur and eyes were darker, their noses smaller and their tails bushier.

"Mommy!" Dina screamed. "Sheldon's back."

Immediately Sheldon's mother Seetha appeared. She didn't hesitate for a minute and hugged her son.

"Oh, my baby," She said, sobbing. "Why did you run away? You could have been dead! I was so worried about you!"

"Mom, let go," Sheldon said, "You're choking me."

"You didn't go back to that guy again, did you?" Seetha asked.

"His name is Buck," Sheldon said. "And he's not just some guy. He's the dinohunter."

"So you did go to him," Seetha said, and she seemed somewhat angry now. "I told you not to go back. What if something happened to you?"

"Buck protects me, mom," Sheldon said.

"He'd better," Seetha said. "Because if something happens to you whenever you're in that Underworld, I swear I will scratch out that other eye of him!"

"Mom!" Sheldon said.

Seetha now looked at the weasel family, who were standing at the bottom of the hill, a few feet away from her.

"And what it this?" She asked.

Dorian stepped forward. "I'm Dorian," he said. "and this is my family and Elco, an old friend of ours. We were in the Underworld with Buck and Sheldon. We thought it was better if we'd accompany him to his home."

Seetha smiled. "Thank you, mr. Dorian," she said.

Diana had to admit that Seetha was a beautiful woman. But not exactly in an innocent way.

She had a dark red-brown fur. Her ears were black. Her big, almond shaped eyes had a dark brown-green color. Her ears were a little pointed, and the fur around her eyes was a slightly different color than the rest of her body.

She had long, razor sharp, black nails on her fingers.

That woman could skin someone with those nails. Diana thought.

Despite of her evil looks, Seetha did not appear to be a bad person. She just had a few scary things that she liked to say. Other than that, she seemed okay.

Elco came forward. "I'm sorry if I'm rude," he asked. "But I'm just curious about Sheldon's father…"

Seetha hissed. "That man," she said, with hate in her voice. "If I ever see him again I swear I will scratch out his eyes with my bare hands!"

That shouldn't be difficult, with those nails. Liza thought.

"You have a bad relationship with him?" Diana asked.

"Bad relationship?!" Seetha said furiously. "He promised me that he would be a loyal husband. But when I told him I was pregnant, he humiliated me and just walked away and never came back. And it turned out he lied to me all that time. He lied to me about never having a girlfriend before. He lied to me about where he came from. He even lied about his age! He said he was much younger than he looked. Turned out he was just some old pervert! I hat him, I tell you. I hate him!"

"But doesn't Sheldon look like him?" Diana asked.

"Yes, but that's not his fault, is it?" Seetha said. "And I don't see that old guy as their father anymore. I'm their mother. I'm their parent, and nobody else."

"What was that guy's name?" Liza asked.

Seetha's eyes narrowed. "Jacob," she said. "and now I don't want to talk about it anymore."

As Seetha walked back to her children, Elco and Diana gave each other a look.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Elco asked.

"I think I do." Diana said.

Elco had told her the name of Buck's father some days ago.

"Shall we tell them?" Elco asked.

Diana shook her head. "Sheldon likes to see Buck as a father-figure," she said. "I don't think he'd want to know the truth. I think it would spoil their father-son relationship."

"I guess so." Elco said.

And so, the secret was safe with them.

….

The End.

…

_**Author's note. **_

**Okay, so this is the end of 'The Underworld'.**

**I hope you enjoyed it, and I would like to thank**

**everyone for reading it. I appreciate all the **

**reviews very much. **

**Some asked if there would be a sequel. At the**

**moment I'm going to work on a different fanfiction,**

**so I don't expect to write a sequel anytime soon.**

**But, suggestions for a sequel are welcome. If you**

**have any ideas you want to discuss you can **

**contact me.**

**Thank you all for reading. **

**Snowy Stoat. **


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